Kimbwandende Kia Busenki Fu-Kiau - African Cosmology of The Bântu-Kongo - Principles of Life & Living-Athelia Henrieta Press (2001)

AFRICAN
COSMOLOGY
OF THE
BANTU—KONGO
Principles of Life & Living
MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AADAAAAAAAAAAAAASAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALASLA
TYING THE SPIRITUAL KNOT
African
Cosmology
OF THE
Bantu—Kongo
Principles of
Life & Living
KIMBWANDENDE KIA BUNSEKI FU-KIAU, PH.D.
ATHELIA HENRIETTA PRESS

PUBLISHING IN THE NAME ORUNMILA
MDAAAAAAAAAAAAADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS
First Edition
Copyright © 1980 by Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau
Second Edition
Copyright © 2001 by Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau
Editorial Production: Roger Francis/Rudolph Francis

Interior and Cover Art Computer Graphics: Franklin Stevenson
Interior Art: Ricardo Belcon
Interior & Cover Design and Composition: | Mulberry Tree Press, Inc.
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in

part, or transmitted in any form, or by any means electronic, mechani-
cal, photocopying, recording or oterwise without prior written permis-
sion from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief pas-
sages in a review.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2001130358
Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau
African Cosmology of the Bantu—Kéngo, Tying the Spiritual Knot

Principles of Life and Living
ISBN: 1-890157-28-7
1. African (Bantu Kéngo) Religion, Spirituality

2. African (Bantu Kéngo) Religion, Cosmology
3. African (Bantu Kéngo) Religion, Philosophy
Printed in Canada.
Diadi nza-Kéngo kandongila: Mono i kadi kia
dingo-dingo (kwénda-vutukisa) kinzungidila
ye didi dia ngolo zanzingila. Ngiena, kadi yateka
kala ye kalulula ye ngina vutuka kala ye kalulula.
Here is what the Kongolese Cosmology taught

me: I am going-and-coming-back-being around
the center of vital forces. I am because I was and
re-was before, and that I will be and re-be again.
CONTENTS
Introduction to the First Edition .................. 9
A Few Words to the Second Edition .............. 13
1. Kéngo Cosmology in Graphics ................. 17

Mapping the Univere ...............000
00 ee 22
2. African Concept of Law and Crime ............. 45
3. Historical Background of the Kéngo Cultural Zone . . 55

Social Organization .........
0.000 eee eee 58
The Ancestral Land ............ 0.000 e ee eee 64
Crime 2.0... ccc cee eee eee eee 69
Debate Process ........ 0c c cece eee eeeenes 82
Proverbs Used Within the Community
About the Community ...............000- 92
Hearing-is Seeing, and Seeing
is Reacting/Feeling ......... 0.0.00 ee euee 113
4. The “V”: Basis of All Realities................ 127
AMNEX 00. eeeeee eens 151

INTRODUCTION
TO THE FIRST EDITION
Malémbe!
his work was written for my seminar discussions at
TT University in 1980. I also wanted it to be a
book for everybody which is why I decided to call it
The African Book Without Title.
If either a lawyer, an anthropologist, a philosopher, an
educator, a politician, a linguist, a diplomat, a therapist or
an ordinary man can find in this work anything that may be
useful to their field, then let them call the book the way
they want it to be called in order to fit it into their field.
Africans, including those of African descent, must love
the study of their languages if they wish to talk honestly
about themselves and about what they are, for all systems’
codes of their society are coded (tied) in these languages
[makolo mafno ma bimpa bia kimvuka ki4u makAangwa mu
ndinga z6zo]. These languages should be studied and used
as languages of instruction in order to prove their scientific
capacity [léndo kiau kianz4yila].
To study language is the most important process of learn-
ing the art of coding and decoding social systems of human
society in the world [kinkete kia kanga ye kutula makolo
ma fu bia kimvuka kia maintu mu nza]. Learning is an ac-
cumulative process of coding and decoding cultures, there-
AFRICAN COSMOLOGY OF ‘THE BANTU-KONGO
fore, it is necessary to study the language that expresses

those cultures—[longuka i nzila yangyumbikila ku nsia
n’'kingu wa nkangulu ye nkutudulu a makolo manzayila ma
mintu]. One also has to learn, the art of tying/coding [kin-
kete kia kangal] in order to understand the opposite side of
that art, how to untie/decode [bwé mu kutula]; only one
who understands the codes of their social and conceptual
systems can decode them for the outside world. This Kongo
proverb/principle does state: A community’s knots/codes
are decoded by its members; variant Systems’ codes are
only decoded by their members [Makolo makanga k4nda
kutula mwisikanda, variant Makolo mak&anga kimpa, kutula
kimpa/mwisikimpa].
Africanists and all African wisdom lovers, likewise,
must be interested in the study of African languages in
order to avoid yesterday’s biased blunders. How can
someone be a true Africanist if he/she is not able to speak
a single African language? How could he/she represent a
system he/she dares not truly taste and feel? To awakening
Africans, such scholars are very dangerous for Africa be-
cause they negatively lead the most dangerous exploita-
tion of man by man, the intellectual exploitation. They
impose themselves upon others by interpreting negatively
other people’s ideas, i.e., what they call “their raw materi-
als/their original work.” Moreover those ideas are badly
understood since they were harvested in a hurry, and all
kinds of cultural misrepresentation and fantasies occur in
the process of “filling in the blanks.”
Food tastes good only if one can taste and feel the
mind and heart of the person who cooked it. This applies
Introduction to the First Edition
to cultures as well. A systematic understanding therefore

is possible only if one can taste and feel the radiation
beauty [n’niénzi a minienie] of the language that gener-
ates that culture.
A work, a teaching, a gift, a laugh or an explanation from
a violent and bloody mind has a great impact on its con-
sumer. We are what we consume, learn, hear, see and feel.
We feel waves/vibrations and radiations [minika ye minie-
nie] because we ourselves produce waves/vibrations and ra-
diations. We are sensitive to heat, cold, and electricity,
[tiya, kidzi ye ngolo za ncezi/sula] only because we our-
selves as organisms produce heat, cold, and electricity.
The American statesman who said that USA citizens
must study foreign languages for national security was not
mistaken. One has to agree that our present conceptual
way of coding and decoding (tying and untying) social and
systematic codes of alien cultures is the cause of insecurity
and tensions in the world today. A person, by the negative
labels one sticks on other people, blinds and sinks oneself.
The African Book Without Title shows how strong and
deep-rooted the concept of coding and decoding [kanga ye
kutula makolo] was and still is throughout life in the
African concepts. For those interested in the study of
African thoughts and systems, we also recommend: the
reading of Ku Nénga and Makuku Matatu.
K. Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau

J.P, Cambridge, 1980
A FEw Worps
TO THE SECOND EDITION
wenty-one years ago this study was printed to serve

as a stepping ground to my class discussions at Yale
University. Since its publication, many outside of
the classroom wanted to have a copy of African Book
Without Title, but it was not available. Friends asked to re-
view the materials and expand the book for a new edition.
This was not possible because each time I tried to do so I
continued to push the work off to the next day. Mean-
while demands and requests for the book accumulated. Fi-
nally, I decided to review the materials of the study for a
second edition, which we are happy to present to you now
under a new title African Cosmology of the Bantu—Kongo:
Principles of Life and Living.
Is there any difference in form and content between
this edition and the first? My answer to that question will
be yes, indeed. Its content was revised and expanded
where it was possible. This expansion includes a brief de-
scription of the Bantu-Kéngo concept of mapping the
universe [kayéngele/luyalungunu] and a new chapter on
the “Vee”, one of the most secret aspects of the Bantu
teaching among the Koéngo people.
By reviewing and expanding the old edition, we only had
one desire in mind, to see many people walk into this new edi-
tion, not only with their fingers and eyes, but with both their
AFRICAN COSMOLOGY OF THE BANTU-KONGO
minds and hearts and take it as one of the basic tools to un-
derstanding the “scientific” structures of the development of
old, African traditional scholarship and its ancient schools.
African Cosmology of the Bantu—Kongo is not a collection
of some data for some academic exercise which, usually,
consists of transferring bones from one graveyard to an-
other. It is a mound of raw materials that require sharp tools
and trained minds to work with for individual, societal,
and/or academic interests. One has to see it and accept it
as a small, but not unimportant piece being added upon our
universal, accumulative experience of knowing. Its comple-
tion was not simple. Behind its present form stands many
close and distant collaborators of whom I will not hesitate
to mention, some with all my gratitude: Danny Dawson
who pushed so hard to see this book revised and expanded
for a second edition. His advice and support were immeas-
urable. Franklin Stevenson, who skillfully illustrated this
edition. Robert Marriott, Lisa Jones and Sarah Khan were
essential to the editing process. And last but not least,
Catheryn Vatuone, who volunteered not only to read, but
edit and type the revised work, Anthony Ferreira and my
publishers Roger and Rudolph Francis, Athelia Henrietta
Press, Publishing in the Name of Orunmila.
Finally, my profound gratitude to all my masters, dead
and alive, who knew how to open my eyes to this rich, tra-
ditional African “scholarship” that still flourishes in the
wilderness of the minds of the African living libraries.
K. Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau

Boston, June, 1998/2000
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TYING THE SPIRITUAL KNOT
African
Cosmology
OF THE
Bantu—Kongo
Principles of
Life & Living
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KONGO COSMOLOGY IN GRAPHICS
|
T he following graphics about Kéngo concepts of their
world are excerpts based on my book N’kéngo ye nza
yakun'zungidila/Le Mukéngo et le Monde qui LEntourait
(ONRD, Kin 1969) and on my unpublished manuscripts
Ku Neénga: Verité Sur les Grandes Initiations en Afrique Cen-
trale (1973, pp. 300), and Makuku Matatu: Les Fondements
Culturels K6ngo (1978, pp. 450). A summary understanding
of these concepts, graphically, is of great help in order to
comprehend the main ideas to be discussed in this work:
African Cosmology of the Kongo Bantu. In this book I discuss
certain concepts such as that of law and crime which link
living communities to their ancestors, the spiritualized be-
ings. For an African Mintu, the dead are not dead: they are
beings living just beyond the wall waiting for their probable
return to the community [ku nseke], to the physical world.
A straight line/skyline [n’lénga - lukéngolo] or a line

with an empty circle [mbiingi], in its middle is, among the
Bantu-Koéngo, the symbol of emptiness, a world without
visible life. That is the emptiness [mbingi, mwaAsi,
mpampa]. The world in its beginning was empty; it was an
mbiingi, an empty thing, a cavity, without visible life. There
Figure 1.
are, in the empty mbdngi, active forces that can blow up

[Mu mbingi yampamba mwena ngolo zilénda kubuka kadi
zena méyo]. Where there is emptiness and nothingness, act
other unknown forces, invisible of course [Kwena mwAsi ye
mpamba kweti sala ngolo zankaka zazimbwa].
Mans life is surrounded by diverse forces and waves
which govern it like in an mbungi [Luztngu lwa miintu i
zingu kia mbingi kiaziingwa kwa ngolo ye mitika mia mpila
mu mpila miydlanga kio].
Kéngo Cosmology in Graphics
oO...
Figure 2.
A fire-force complete by itself, kaliinga, emerged within
the mbiingi, the emptiness/nothingness and became the
source of life [méyo wawo mu nza] on earth. That is, the
kaliinga, complete force by itself, fired up the mbiangi and
overran (dominated) it [kaliinga waliinga/kwika mbingi ye
lungila yo].
The heated force of kalfinga blew up and down as a huge
Figure 3.
storm of projectiles, kimbwandénde, producing a huge mass

in fusion- [luku lwalamba Nzdmbi] (Fu-Kiau, 1969).
Kalinga then became the symbol for force, vitality and
more, a process and principle of change, all changes on the
earth [Kalinga waliinga mbingi ye lungila yo wayika se
nkingu wa nsobolo]. And by cooling the mass in fusion
[zenge-zenge/ladi diambangazi] solidified itself [kinda] and
gave birth to the earth. In the process of cooling,
[mvodolo/nghodolo] the matter in fusion [luku lwalamba
NzAmbi] produced water, [luku lwas4nda] whose rivers,
mountains, etc., are the results (Fu-Kiau, 1969).
~+- .
Figure 4.
The world, [nza], became a physical reality floating in
kaliinga ( in the endless water within the cosmic space);
half emerging for terrestrial life and half submerging for
submarine life and the spiritual world. The kalinga, also
meaning ocean, is a door and a wall between those two
20
worlds. Kaltinga became also the idea of immensity,

[sénsele/wayawa] that one cannot measure; an exit and en-
trance, source and origin of life, potentialities [n’kingu-
nzambi] the principle god-of-change, the force that contin-
ually generates. Because kaliinga was the complete life,
everything in touch with the earth shared that life, and be-
came life after itself. That life appeared on the earth under
all kinds of sizes and forms: plants, insects, animals, rocks,
human beings, etc. (see in Kindoki, 1970).
Figure 5.
The number of infinite mass in fusion particles that re-

mained hanging in the upper space [mu luyalungunu]
constituted what are known in human languages as sun,
moon, stars [ntangu, ngOnda, mbwetete] which are in re-
alities other worlds. Man is called to live in certain of
those worlds, too (Fu-Kiau, in Méyo, 1969). Kalainga, the
principle-god-of change, is a force in motion, and because
of that our earth and everything in it is in perpetual mo-
tion. Man himself is an “object” [ma] in motion for he is

an around-path-goer [n’zdingi a nzila], in his upper and
lower world (Fu-Kiau, 1969). 1 would like to digress here
to give you a brief Bantu-Kéngo concept of mapping she
universe according to their teaching. An important step
to help you understand more clearly some of the concepts
described in this book.
Mapping the Universe

For the Bantu people, the Kéngo in particular, the uni-
verse as we see and know it is the result of the “primitive”
event that occured in and around it [dinga kiantete] well
known as luku lwalamba Nz4mbi, God cooked dough, i.e.,
the magmatic matters, the big bang (Fu-Kiau, 1969). It is
the result of an expanding fire process that leaves behind,
through a cooling process [nghodolo], satellites and plan-
ets. It is the process of the cosmic, expanding fires [dingo-
dingo dia mpiaya yayalanga].
According to the Kéngo teaching, our planet earth was
the starting point of this fire [mpiaya yayi,center/didi] in
our solar system [kdndu kiéto, nza, i kénko dia nté6nono a
mpiaya yayi mu fu kia ntangu]. On the ground of this old
Bantu teaching, the universe can be mapped [tendu-
munwa/yalwa] in three main layers or zones [nyalu/ziinga],
depending if it is in green, gray or red state.
a) Green or breathing planet
[nza yankdGnzu/yavimuna].
Green or breathing planets are living planets because
they have completed the four great formation stages of the
K6ngo cosmogram known as dikenga dia K6ngo (Fu-Kiau,

1969, 1980, 1991). The key word to these planets is green-
ness [bunkinzu], the vitality giving nature.
Green planets, like our own planet earth, can be thought
of as the oldest planets to solar systems. The earth, for ex-
ample, can be seen for the Bantu people as the oldest
planet of the solar system. Green planets occupy the center
[didi] of systems in our expanding universe.
The expanding creative fire-energy that departed from
the first event [dinga kiantete] or the big bang [kimb-
wandénde], was not an experimental explosion from a lab-
oratory say the Bantu-K6ngo. It was a natural (call it di-
vine) imperative order to bring a transformation process
into being throughout the universe and into all its planets
until their full maturity, ic. be able to breathe and
vive/carry life [vimuna ye vana/tambikisa méyo]. To our
present “knowledge”, our planet, the earth, is the only
planet known that has so far fulfilled this order: It is green
(breathes) and does not only give life, but is able to sustain
it up to now as well.
b) Gray planets [nza yavémba].
Gray planets are planets “without” life yet. They are
without life yet because these planets are still in their cool-
ing [ghola] process stage, eventually heading towards their
second, third, and fourth stage of dikenga dia K6ngo,
Kéngo cosmogram’s greatest stages as described by my
works (1969, 1986, 1991). The moon [ngénda] and the
planet mars [n’kasi a ngdnda], which means “wife of the
moon”, are of this stage.
Planets in this group occupy the second layer of the map,
immediately after the green planets’ layer. The key word in

this zone [lubata] is grayness/dust [vémba/fundu-fundu],
but also dryness [yuma]. These planets are naked, dry and
covered with dust. Gray planets are without life as we know
it, i.e., they are without plants, animals, and of course,
without human beings. The Bantu-Kéngo teaching sug-
gests that if left alone, these planets will eventually com-
plete the four stages of planet transformation process which
is based on the Kéngo cosmogram, i.e., see the rise of
plants, animals and beings like humans share life on them.
c) Red/hot planets [nza ya mbengelele].
Red or hot planets are actually burning planets. They
are still matters in fusion without a clearly defined shape
or form [zenge-zenge diatiya k6ndwa mbélo yasukuswa].
They are at their primitive or “first” stage of planetary for-
mation process, their big bang stage [kimbwandénde].
These planets form the actual last frontier of a system,
such as our own. Beyond these frontiers are infinite dark
fields to be invaded by the future firing process [dingo-
dingo] of expanding systems.
The key words in this zone [lubata] are extreme heat
[mbengelele], and greatest temperature [mbangazi]. Here
everything is matter in fusion and gas [zenge-zenge ye
kaudi]. The red planets without form cannot avoid the
dingo-dingo process of the four greatest stages of planetary
transformation process of the dikenga, the cosmogram
mentioned earlier. They will solidify through the cooling
process, then eventually complete all other stages until the
cosmogram [dikenga] of each planet is made whole to bear
life. Until then, planets in this zone [lubata], because of the
24
intensity of movements, will always continue to collide and

shoot in the space [bulana ye timba mikala]. The following
illustration shows the Bantu-Kéngo mapping concept of
the universe [ngyalumun’a nkwal’a luyalungunu] Each cir-
cle represents the boundary between planets’ zone layers.
Figure 6.
After this short and brief description of the Bantu-

K6éngo traditional scholarship on mapping the universe,
let’s return to the sun’s apparent movements around our
own planet and its impact or significance in the Kéngo
system of thought.
Man is a second sun rising and setting around the earth.
Figure 7.
He has to rise as the sun does in order to Kala, to be, to be-

come, to light fire. The Kala and kalazima concept itself is
associated with blackness and is used as a symbol of emer-
gence of life, the physical world [ku nseke]. The ngiinza,
spiritual man, is associated with the forces behind this con-
cept and this process. Kala is the strongest will of mantu’s
existence as we meet it in his daily expressions:
¢ Kala/ba miintu—be a human being, a helpful being

¢ Kala/ba n’kisi a kanda—be the community’s medicine
¢ Kala/ba nkasi a kanda—be a leader of the community
¢ Kala/ba nganga—be a specialist, a true knower, a mas-
ter, a doer
¢ Kala/ba n’kingu a kanda—be the principle of the
community
¢ Kala/ba kimpa mu bimpa—be a system within systems
¢ Kala/ba diéla mu bimpa bia mintu—be wise and sen-
sible to human systems
¢ Kala/ba kala, i sa vo n’zimi ye n’ kwiki—be alive, be a
(coal-fighter), i.e. extinguisher and lighter
¢ Kala/ba mfumu ye nganga—be a leader and specialist
6
e Kala/ba lembanzau kia kanda—be the strongest of the

community
e Kala/ba n’kéngo ye n’konguludi a kanda—be a
Mukéngo and judge of his community
Figure 8.
Kula, to grow in the way of making one’s own history

[kikulu] to develop, to mature until reaching the position
of leadership and be able to exercise it. Being in the king or
leader’s place is to be in the position of authority and
power. The kala, by the process of growth and maturation,
becomes tukula, the red or redness, which is the symbol of
mature leadership within the community; it is also the step
of the man of deeds [n’kwa-mavanga]. The collective mat-
uration, its leadership, through the process of collective
yrowth, allows for social and community development. The
step Kala-Tukula segment, representing the present time, is
the positive one in the upper world, ku nseke, the physi-
cally living world.
The tukula position occupies the center of the cone of
power and leadership [sudi kia léndo], which I may also call
the “V of life.” To grow, to mature [kula] is to be ready to

enter into this powerful zone of the V of life. It is very im-
portant to understand also that to enter the V of life zone
is to stand vertically [telama lwimba-ng4ngal]inside the V
of life [V kia ztngu]. To stand vertically, like a master
[nganga] between the earth and the sky [va kati kwa n’toto
ye zulu] and between the upper world and the lower world
[va kati dia ku nseke ye ku mpémbe].
The Egyptian ankh symbol itself is nothing else but a
symbol of a master [nganga] standing vertically inside the
|
xX
OO
\
“V” of his community life, as a priest and a leader. The fate

of societies, institutions, and social systems all depend on
how people of a given society enter this zone.
Figure 10.
Miantu ukulanga uvanganga kikulu ye kota mu n'lénga wa

Bakulu bateka kula. Miintu wakuya kavanganga kikulu ko;
ukotanga mu n'lénga wa bakuya, n’kuyu, i bakulu bambi.—A
man that grows up is in the process of making history, and
lhe enters the rank of the ancestors, those well minded peo-
ple who grew up before him. On the contrary, a man that
does not grow up, the one who deviates and is not well
minded, is not in the process of making history; he enters
the rank of the [n’kuyu] bad ancestors, while living, the de-
viators, the regressive and “stunted” ancestors.
‘These ancestors are those individuals who were not able
to “telama Iwimba-nganga’”, to live inside their most aspired
V of life zone, the V3. They passed this zone of power, cre-
tivity, inventions, and mastery in all aspects of life in a
JY
state of blindness. They were asleep, stunted ancestors

[Bakulu bakuya].
Figure 11.
Landila tambi kia tukula, i bébo bimvuka ye zinsi, miaintu

fwiti kulumuka ku mpémba. Nkulumukunu ku mpémba i kota
mu n’soko wa nsobolo kana vo yakula evo yakuya—Arfter his
tukula step, man must descend into the deepest world. This
is the same for communities, societies, and nations. The de-
scent at ku mpémba is to enter, positively or negatively, the
process of change. Luvémba, white chalk, is the symbol
used at this step. Luvémba also means negative elements
(toxins) accumulated by a person during his life which
leads to the physical death of all living beings. This process
is associated with the nganga, specialist or healer. The
life/death struggle is experienced here. The step tukula-lu-
vémba in the upper world [ku nseke] is a negative one; it
represents the future. This step is also the step symbolizing
30)
the process by which former leaders [simbi bia nsi] pass

over their leadership to the younger generation, very often
by initiation [ghandisa biyinga mu kubayekudila kinganga
ye kimbuta]. It is the principle of receiving and releasing or
the process of life and living [I n’kingu wa tambula ye tam-
hikisa evo dingo-dingo dia luzingu] (Fu-Kiau, 1966).
Figure 12.
This world, the physical world, has three basic forces

whose leadership is the balance between them. This upper-
world is widely known in K6ngo traditional symbolizing sys-
(em as makuku matatu, three firestones, from the Kéngo
well known proverbial theory—Makuku matatu matedim-
ina kinzu kia Ne-Kongo. The three firestones which uphold
the social Kéngo structural motor, kinzu. The social struc-
tural organization of Kéngo society is shaped and patterned
hy three basic forces:
|. All growing social forces among zingiinza, heroic youth,

future community members, in their kala step.
2. All positive capacities of present leaders and their lead-
ership, n’twadisi/simbi ye kintwAdisi kidu.
3. The experience of specialists and their specialities,
nkuma za banganga ye kinganga kidu.
Notice here, that in traditional Kéngo society, to become

a specialist, was something required of all its members, and

was an expression of professional requirement in social life.
In Kéngo society, “Everyone is a free individual and a
doer/specialist,” Muna Kéngo mfumu na mfumu, nganga
na nganga. A Mukéngo was accepted as such, as an
Nganga in his community if he only could be a doer of
something for the well-being of the community; kala ye
salu, to have a “métier”. This Nza ya ku nseke upper world
is based in the real life:
Sun movement: the rising and setting of the sun.

Cycle of human life: birth, growth and death.
Fireplace [zikwa], with its three firestones.
Divinitory calabash in upper world with its three dif-
ferently colored ingredents, dingu.
According to the author Batshikama, also a Mukéngo,

makuku matatu, the three K6ngo mother provinces which
only date from the 13th century to the present time is not
to be linked to the Bantu-Kéngo world view. Batshikama’s
concept of makuku matatu is incorrect. Makuku Matatu,
which means the three firestones, is linked with the Ké6ngo
worldview, through its presence in Ké6ngo cosmogram. The
three firestones, or the physical world, [kala, tukula and lu-
vemba] are opposite of the spiritual world, Ku Mpémba.
This theory dates back to the beginning of the Kéngo lan-
guage and culture. The concept of makuku matatu
(machua among the Baluba) as a symbol of the upper
world, is widespread among the Bantu populations, and yet,
there too, it does not have any connection with the erro-
32
neous idea of the Batshikama notion stated in his “Voici les

Jagaz” (p. 179). The Kéngo ignore Batshikama’s theory of
makuku matatu because it presents the notion of recent,
pre-colonial three mother provinces without connecting
their basic and symbolic meaning with the social structural
forces of the three firestones.
Figure 13.
After crossing the kaldiinga line, the doorway towards ku

mpémba, the lowest world, the dead, i.e., the transformed
boxy, grows up too in order to reach the position of musoni,
(of sona, i.e., to mark on, to symbol, to engrave) and be-
come a true knower of what is marked on one’s own mind
and body.
The position of musoni is associated with the notion of
tuloki, the knower of man’s principles and systems of
n’kingu ye bimpa higher levels, the kindoki or science of
higher knowledge. The manipulation of these n’kingu and
limpa principles and systems permitted, say the Kéngo, to
assist the ndoki to become a winged person, a flier. An
ndoki was publicly affirmed to have “flown from here to
Kinkénge and from there to Boma” during a public confes-

sion (Diantézilza, 1970).
Musoni represents the color yellow, which is believed to
be associated with knowledge. In an initiatic ceremony lead-
ing to the deepest things, an initiator nganga will begin his
rite by saying Ntete mpémba mbo’ musoni kalAnda. In the
ceremony of the descent of passage, first comes luvémba,
then musoni, the yellow, which reminds the nganga that
things should be done in their natural order. One does not
go beyond this deepest world, ku mpémba without passing
through luvémba, the death barrier, the doorway towards it.
The step luv€mba-musoni at ku mpémba is a positive
one; it is the period of birth-growth of that world, a pene-
tration through the accumulated cultural roll of the past
time in order to regenerate one’s own life’s potentialities for
a possible return of that ngolo, energy, ku nseke, in the
physical world.
After accumulation of all spiritual, moral, intellectual or
genetic potentialities at ku mpémba, when passing through
Figure 14.
34
the step of musoni, the Ké6ngo cosmology tells us, the dual
soul-mind mpéve-ngindu is ready to reincarnate (rebirth or
re-re .. . birth) in order to rise again in the upper world
{kala diaéka ku nseke]. This is demonstrated in a continuum
of rebirth after rebirth, meaning incarnation after incarna-
tion. The body of ku mpémba has then to change (die) in
order to be acceptable by an upper world’s physical body.
The step musoni-kala in the spiritual world is a negative
one because it represents the departing step of all descend-
ing forces/energies of the lower world.
(a)
wy,
Figure 15.
A human being’s life is a continuous process of transfor-

mation, a going around and around, Mantu ye zingu kiandi
i madiédie ye n’zingi a nzila. The human being is kala-zima-
kala, a living-dying-living-being. A being of continuous mo-
tion through four stages of balance between a vertical force
and a horizontal force. The horizontal force is fundamental,
i)
because it is the key to open or to close, to enter or exit the

diurnal world, nza a mwini, ya ku nseke or the nocturnal
world, nza ya mptmpa, ya ku mpémba and vice versa. The
vertical force, the dangerous and dominant one, is second-
ary in the balance required for community life [kinenga kia
kimvuka], its religious relations.
It is the horizontality plane [lufulu lwabwa/lufulu lwa
kilukéngolo] that binds all community relationships be-
tween its members: its true religion [lukangudulu].
When these relationships are weakened or broken, the
community leadership calls for a reconciliation meeting
[mu kangulula] to tie again, to re-ligar; the broken rela-
tionships are reestablished and the community is bal-
anced [kinenga]. Once these broken relationships are
reestablished and the community bio-spiritual “rope” is
strengthened, the whole community will stand again
lwimba-nganga on the vertical plane [kintombayulu] be-
tween the earth and the skies, and between the upper
and lower world, to communicate to both kaltinga, the
completely complete higher living energy [Nzambi], and
the ancestors [Bakulu].
The Kongo believe that individual people and nations
have rolls of life [tuzingu] in the form of tapes that hold
(imprint) records of all their deeds. Because of these rolls
hidden in their beings, their past can be revealed, i.e., read
like a book [zingumunwa]. On the day of “judgment”, the
sacred teaching of the Kéngo philosophy- says that each
will see his roll of life [luzingu] unfold and speak loudly be-
fore the universe and its “great judge.”
30
Figure 16.
Man’s life attention, ku nseke, is centered on the n'kisi

(N) which is the central and most important element in that
world. It is the force-element that has the power to “kinsa”,
root-word of n’kisi, meaning to take care, to cure, to heal, to
yuide by all means even by ceremony. The n’kisi takes care of
lhuman beings in all his aspects of life in the world because he
lyas a material body that needs care by n’kisi (medicine). Be-
cause he lives in a world surrounded by matadi (M), miner-
als, bimbenina (B), plants, and bulu (b), animals, his n’kisi
(N) must be made of compounds from M-B-b.
In the spiritual world the kundu, kindoki, is the central
ind most important element in this unfathomable world.
‘This clement is made up by the experience based on bibulu
(Ib) including human being, the stmbi (s) i-e., ancestral expe-
rience, and on mpéve(m), i.e., soul-emind experience. In this
case kundu or kindoki is the lived and accumulated knowl-

edge. This lived accumulated experience-knowledge may be
positive or negative for the social life in the community de-
pending on the kind of leadership it has. Because of its dou-
ble faces, one positive and another negative, it became
kundu-man is a liar [kundu n’kwa-mikalu]. One cannot tell
about himself what he is, says a K6ngo proverb.— Kundu is
alike to properties; no one agrees to be rich [Kundu
kimvwama, ka kitambudulwanga ko]. The fact of not agree-
ing to one’s own wealth does not mean that wealth is totally
bad. Kindoki, nzailu likewise, is one among the equivalent
terms of science in kikéngo language, and as to every knowl-
edge it has its positive side as well as its negative one. Kin-
doki, Nzailu and Bumpitu are synonymous terms, but the last
is more proper in lieu of chemistry than in lieu of science.
Nothing in the daily life of K6ngo society is outside of
MFumu
Ji
bibulu
{human being) b
Nganga Ngtinza
Ndoki
Figure 17.
$8
its cosmological practices. The marriage pattern itself, one

of the most important social institutions, symbolizes a
basic cosmological pattern where vertical and horizontal
forces are keys to that most important institution. Notice
the position of each element allied to marriage léngo.
Léngo itself occupies the position of center (didi), the
source of radiation of life. The marriage, in other words,
for the Bantu-Kéngo, is a physically living symbol of al-
liance(s) between, at least, two communities. Therefore,
divorce is not an issue of individuals, but of communities
involved in the marriage. There is no such thing as “love”
in the beginning of a marriage. Love is a process of mutual
vrowth of partners-symbols of communities’ alliances. For
the Bak6éngo, no matter what happens among partners in
the léngo, that l6ngo will be held alive as long as alliances
between the communities involved remains on good
KISE
(Fatherhood)
NGUDI TATA
(Mother) (Father)
KINGWA-NKASI
(Unclehood)
Figure 17b.
19)
terms. These communities will do their best in order to

maintain alive the léngo.
The marriage, first of all, is a social “deal” for the great
interest of the community and its members. It is through
family buta, that social forces are transmitted such as
norms, values, ideals, etc. Without accord of those forces,
it is almost impossible among the Kéngo that individuals
legally, according to the traditions, form a family buta, no
matter how much they love each other. A “buta” formed
outside of that accord is always seen socially as “illegal”, a
social deviation to the part of partners, for l6ngo is more
than the union of two individuals. Since the children to be
born/ engendered by the partners in their longo should
serve the community, it is important that, that same com-
munity or communities have a word to say at the moment
the will of l6ngo formation appears, i.e., it should be pre-
pared to accept them in recognizing first of all the union of
the parents, and this, publicly within the communities, oth-
erwise they will give birth to children, which will, because
of social and psychological crisis they may have, become
bad leaders or dictators as revenge against the society.
Moreover, all social forces watch at longo, the indissol-
uble institution (in Kéngo tradition, there is no legal as-
pect of l6ngo-divorce). Léngo creates alliances and neu-
tralizes conflicts among parties. The child does not belong
to parents, it is a collective, and societal relationship, says
a proverb [Wabuta mbawu 4ndi kayetila]. By recognizing
the léngo as legal, the society accepts automatically the re-
sponsibility to raise all offspring’s of such a “léngo”
40
(Motherhood) fF Nza
(Universe}
NS ae
_ (Land/Country)
Mwelo-nzo
(Extended Motherhood) wa Famil
“| Kanda
(Community)
Mantu
Buta
Méyo
Mwelo-nzo
Kanda
Figure 18.
whereby the African saying, “It takes the whole commu-

nity/village to raise a child.”
N’kAngi-dikAnda, the clan’s pattern, is a structured totality
of structured totalities within a great ensemble of ensembles.
Mantu, person: set of concrete social relationships, he is
a system of systems, the pattern of patterns in being.
Buta, family: father and mother with or without children
of their own. In Black African society a man/woman with-
out child has always, in accordance to kinship relationship,
those to whom he/she is father/mother with all respect due
to a father/mother throughout all social layers from the
buta to the nza itself.
Méyo literally, womb: set of family members of one’s
grandmother’s descent.
Mweélo-nzo: set of midyo (plural of méyo)
Kanda: community, set of miélo-nzo (plural of mwélo-
nzo); an ethnic group or a bio-branch with its own “praise
name”, ndumbudulu.
Nsi (n’toto): land, region, country
Naa: world, universe.
This last concept, the clan’s pattern, and all others shortly
described above are among those expressing the Kéngo con-
cept of the world, the Kéngo cosmology. Without this brief
summary, I thought it would be difficult for certain readers
to comprehend the African concept of law and crime which
will now be discussed below. Many conceptual parts of that
African traditional legal aspect will be easily understood
thanks to some of the previous explanations. I, now, invite
you to read that African aspect of law and crime even
though it is not done by a specialist in legal matters.
42
Figure 19.
‘A - Nkata ku mfinda i ntangu a bakulu ye simbi - The spiral bale (coil) in the
forest (spiritual world) represents the past, i.e., ancestors and genius’ time
[Neingu yankulu/tandu kiankulu (A)].
I} - The sun rising segment (BC) represents the present time whose the “n't-
niu’ (simbi) is “nkam’a nténgu”, the dam of time.
(:- The sun setting segment (CD) represents the future, i.e. the time after the
king (n’tinu) or a djin (simbi) and his leadership. A forecast of what one will
he, an “n’kulu” (ancestor) or an “n’kuwyu” (ghost, bad ancestor), on the eyes of
the society once one is gone “ku mpémba” (died).
AFRICAN CONCEPT
OF LAW AND CRIME
his study on the African concept of law and crime is

based on the Bantu people who live in the center of
west Africa, specifically the Bantu-Kéngo. In this
analysis I would like to emphasize the traditional concepts
of law and crime still practiced by the Bantu-Kéngo people
and their neighbors rather than what has been recorded by
some European travelers. These Europeans wrote about the
culture of the people of this area, including the Bantu-
Kongo, without knowing, even superficially, any African
language, man’s most important instrument of cultural com-
munication and of social learning patterns and behavior.
One of the most crucial African problems, which leads
to anarchy within many African governments today, and
therefore cannot be neglected, is the African people’s
total ignorance of their own traditional concept of law
and crime. This ignorance confronts modern African
leaders with a dilemma, a certain impossibility of choice.
Because they do not have a full understanding of either
western or African patterns of law, they cannot totally opt
for either system.
With the adoption of the imported legal systems by new

African nations, everything since then has turned upside
down. Considering what one sees and lives in today’s Africa,
colonial atrocities are not any more viewed as such. For
many outsiders who have witnessed African humanism and
its strong wonderful neighborhéod among people, verbally
and documentary these outsiders tell us that Africa, in many
of its parts, is in the wrong hands of “foolish” leaders. African
leaders, with few exceptions, are considered foolish men
[bimpdimbulu, lauki ye m’bundumuni mia nsi], because they
act outside of African traditional legal aspects of leadership.
African people themselves agree that the great majority of
their political leaders are good for nothing.These leaders
could have been excellent governors during the colonial
epoch to serve their masters sufficiently. But, by and large,
we should recognize one competence: They are very suc-
cessful about the matter of the competition around col-
leagues’ ladies, a competition that gave birth to what is
known in certain African countries as “second-bureauism,”!
the key to most antagonism in today’s Africa; antagonisms
which are not very often political or ideological.
' Second-bureauism: secret polygamy of elites and bourgeois in

certain African countries. A second-bureau is, in those coun-
tries, not a second office, but a lady very often officially hired by
a governmental or an administrative authority not essentially to
play a governmental role in public life, but in the eyes of the hir-
ing side, to serve as a means by which the authority intends to
accomplish certain of its secret plans and intentions against cer-
tain individuals it considers as its foes.
40
African Concept of Law and Crime
Unfortunately, African people do not want to try to see

through African legal and conceptual framework what is
happening now to African leaders. There should be, they
say, something wrong going on here. Well, a Kéngo philo-
sophical principle and its variants will enlighten us on the
issue. In considering the physical and mental health of a
leader, the true leader for a people, the K6ngo people say:
Community-chieffleader does not get mental disease
[Mfumu-dikanda kalaukanga ko], except otherwise, ac-
cording to the three variarrts of the precited principle on
the health of a leader:
Variant No 1: “Mfumu-dikanda kalauka milongi

katundidi”—a societal leader becomes foolish if he
bypasses his people’s advice.
Variant No 2: “Mfumu-dik4nda kalauka bilesi katun-

didi”—a community leader becomes foolish if he
usurps his people’s prerogatives. |
Variant No 3: “Mfumu-dikanda kalauka yémba

katGmbudi”—a community leader becomes mentally
sick if he intends to destroy the public’s fundamental
institutions, such as yémba.
The Kéngo principle of political philosophy cited here

tells us that a leader does not suffer any ailment due to his
functions be it physical or mental during his mandate if he
shares his power, his authority with the people through
their elected delegates. On the contrary, according to these
three variants of the principle, if he considers himself the
law, the people, the synonym of institution, and the state

then he may become the object of all kinds of troubles:
Overworking or brain-fag, incapacity, nervousness, uncon-
trolled desire to stay in power, even if unable. Instead of
being a leader who listens to the people, he becomes a
leader that speaks, matokula, i.e., a leader that imposes on
the people his own will contrary to the African traditional
concept of a leader’s conduct in public affairs. The leader
has ears, he does not have a mouth [“Mfumu matu; kavwa
nnwa ko”]. Many African leaders, as well as intellectuals,
continue to underestimate their own people by the single
fact that those populations do not speak western languages,
the “languages of science” as they say. For them, says the
imperialistic anthropology of some fifteen years ago, those
populations still have “archaic mentalities”. That is a grave
accusation. For many leaders, African languages are the
poorest ones in the world. They cannot, by any proof, ac-
cept that certain among our languages are by far richer
than the languages of today’s leading technology. With the
English word COME “framed” by diverse prepositions, the
Kongolese (Kik6ngo) demonstrates the richness of African
languages, languages considered by many as unable to
transmit knowledge:
Come Kwiza, lwaka, pala, vaikisa,

lumina
Come (down) Kulumuka, kéka
Come (out) Vaika; lénda
2. See Th. Obenga in his La Cuvette Congolaise, pg. 73.
48
Come (in) Kota, fiolumuka

Come (up) Témbuka, maka: s6nga
Come (on) Vova, tatamana; bwé kwandi
Come (back) Vutuka; vutukila
Come (about) Lwaka; zingana, bwa
Come (across) BwaAna; sabuka, luta
Come (along) Nianga; tatamana, bandana,
wizana, zolana
Come (after) Landa, vingana
Come (around) ingisa, tambudila, sidmisa
Come (at) Lwaika, tila; bwila
Come (between) Vambisa, pwaka, zénga, kam-
bakana
Come (out with) Zayisa, tengula, samuna
Come (against) Bulana, ta sikuba, kondama, bi-
tana
Come (apart) Mwangana, kukivambula, tatuka,
tina
Come (away) Nanguka, l6nduka
Come (before) Tékila, tw4ma, vita
Come (by) Vidkila, lutila, yOkila
Come (over) Bwila, tana, kwiza
Come (together) Kutakana, yénzama, t6tana,
bandana
Come (under) Tambudila, yalwa
I sometimes ask myself for whom African, even the

world’s intellectuals and scholars do make fun of? I grew up
in a village of at least 1,000 inhabitants (before it knew the
rural exodus). There was not a single policeman, the jail
was unknown, no secret agent, i.e., a people’s watchdog. It
did not have a bureau of investigation, no sentry to watch
40
on people’s goods. In daytime that village was practically

and in its entirety empty without a single person to take
care of unlocked doors. Strangers were always welcome.
Everybody felt responsible to everybody else in the commu-
nity and its neighborhood. When a community member
suffered, it was the community as a whole that suffered.
Until age 25, it was very nice to live in that community, lit-
erally a community without problems. Such communities
still exist in many parts of the world which are known as
“developing regions” where the imperialistic arms race did
not yet trouble the peace. But take any modern African city
(center of imported civilization) where we find thousands
of policemen, security services, schools with their many
hundreds of “civilizing” teachers, all kinds of counsellors,
all kinds of knowledge unknown in rural milieus, and do
not talk about warranted jobs! Could you imagine or tell
how many corruptions, fights, insults, falsifications, dis-
criminations, kidnappings, and crimes are made every sin-
gle day by our leaders and intellectuals in such cities? Any
of those cities are as alike as any city in the world. And my
question remains, where is that Kim@intu (the state of being
human), that we should be?
Africa is suffering now because it has chosen and adopted
a law that has less to do with humanity, a law that empha-
sizes more the life of the disliked, undemocratic, and un-
popular leaders and for the no-soul-minded-objects. The
weight is so great upon African leaders’ shoulders that it is
impossible for them to think coherently, and consciously
about their national responsibilities. Africa, under such a
leadership with such a law, will be good for nothing. Our
50
world needs a new order. Such an order is only possible with

a new law in newly born countries. A law that should neu-
tralize present world antagonisms. Africa may greatly con-
tribute in building such an order if it chooses a law that sees
man’s value and needs first rather than his destruction.
African people should unite and strongly stand on their own
feet at this time where even the most democratic countries
become undemocratic; a time where peace-keeping coun-
tries become dictator supporter countries; a time where
human rights observers become human slaughter encour-
agers. African salvation will not come either from the East
or from the West; it is entirely an African affair. Our world
is frightened about anything because we are entirely
dumped in an ocean of human blood and no one can
breathe. I hope this study, in its perspective of traditional
African law and crime, will be of interest to lawmakers and
improve their understanding of these African concepts, es-
pecially those related to land and to social structure.
The study is not itself a comparative study of western
and African concepts of law and crime, but a description of
traditional African legal concepts among the Kéngo, one of
the most important zones of the African culture. The ele-
ments of law described here could, in the future, serve as
sources of information for a comparative study of law and
crime. These concepts are important because they reflect
the larger society and cultural history. Because of its al-
liance with western imperialist-capitalist masters, the pres-
ent African leadership is developing legal systems on west-
ern grounds which lack a clear understanding of African
cultural traditions in terms of law; traditions which should
51
give rise to authentic and original African constitutions

[tusikudukusu, pl. of Lusikudukusu].
It is almost impossible these days to avoid western even
eastern influence on African legislature. But the tendency
towards westernization or easternization of African legisla-
ture raises serious questions: Will western or eastern insti-
tutions imported into Africa fit into the cultural
“tribal/ethnic” bases? Will not these bases be in perpetual
conflict? Will not the replacement of traditional African
laws based on taboo by western or other based laws cause
some kind of social imbalance on African fundamental
concepts and values? Is not the traditional taboo, collec-
tivist or communalist African system the best system for
African development? These are some important questions
I would like to discuss, not as a specialist in the matter, but
as an African who has been nourished by the daily life ex-
perience of this systematic African way of living for more
than forty years in my African Ké6ngo community. Not in
cities, but in the countryside where the real African life is
met, and where most critical African problems are lived,
and above all, where languages and cosmologies that gen-
erate all African thought and philosophy are still alive.
Most of today’s African leaders, in their daily demagogic
political speeches recognize that their countries do suffer
from one mortal disease whose cure must be immediate. A
disease that has become a keyword in all political, eco-
nomic and philosophical debates in all societal levels
worldwide: the question of exploitation. But what is very
strange and imperceptible to any human mind is that these
same leaders ignore the fact that they are, at the moment,
52
the key-leaders of those African countries where exploita-

tion persists at a faster rate than what was known during
the colonial epoch. This exploitation has reached the high-
est point of national ruin. No one cares about real social
and community needs; no one cares about what will be the
national next day; no one cares about our positive old ways
of thinking and of taking care of our fellow human beings;
no one cares about our norms and values; no one cares...
and so on and so forth, except planning who may be able to
shoot at Kele-Kele-dia-Nsi, my opponent; digging for
causes and reasons to eliminate anyone attacking insane
political behaviors. What means are necessary to stop a
particular region or ethnic group progressing in this coun-
try. That is the way of thinking and of acting, not of all
African ordinary people, but of most of today’s leaders of
Africa; leaders that do nothing more than killing, hanging,
corrupting and increasing the illness among us: the ex-
ploitation. It is certain that everybody agrees that as long as
this disease remains in its present form, all of Africa will
continue following the path of underdevelopment, i.e., of
economic slavery. Its populations, the African people, be
they Black or White, will remain ill-fed, ill-housed, ill-edu-
cated, ill-clothed, and perpetually victims of outside sys-
tems, ideologies, values and laws.
No, Africa needs a change because its’ populations need
it and not because someone else wants it for them. It be-
longs, first, to every African leader to have the deepest un-
derstanding of all of our regional cultures that symbolize
ourselves if we hope for a true, real, and profound change
in Africa, the first continent of mankind.
An African leader who considers as tribalism our na-

tional diversities commits a national crime because, by
doing so, he himself denies the existence of the nation it-
self. Are not ethnic diversities that made USA, Russia and
China, great nations! Ethnicity is not a disease, it is, in its
diversity, a national pride. Nations are forests—“Nsi
mfinda” says a K6ngo proverb. A forest of one type of trees
is not a forest, it is a “n’dima” (orchard) no matter how
large it is, for a forest is always an ensemble in diversity. Our
national cultural, linguistic, artistic, and economic diversi-
ties are also our national pride on which our national
African Constitutions should be based. These ideas are dis-
cussed, especially those based on K6ngo culture, a Bantu
ethnic group in the center of west Africa. Let’s now briefly
talk about this cultural zone and its historical background.
54
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF
THE KONGO CULTURAL ZONE
C vi parts of Ex-Belgian Africa, as well as certain

others of the Angolan Popular Republic and that of
the Congo Popular Republic were constitutional
parts of the Ancient Kingdom of the Kéngo that was de-
stroyed by the Portugese and its allies in 1482. The Berlin
Geographical Conference in 1884-85 divided this King-
dom into three imperialistic zones: One part, part of the
present Angola, went to the Lusitanian imperio-dictato-
rial system; the second, part of the present Congo, to the
imperialistic system of France, and the third, part of the
present, undemocratic Democratic Republic of Congo,
was made the private property of Leopold II, the King of
Belgium.
Unable to develop his private property, this rich territory
within what the colonists called the “dark continent” (a
point of view that opposes that of the ancient Greeks who
knew that Africa was the source of their scientific progress).
Leopold II gave up the Congo at the consent of the Belgian
people in 1908. The Congo of Leopold II then became the
Belgian Congo. Since then the Congo entered a period dur-
ing which its important traditional institutions were sys-
tematically destroyed. Boko, the most popular and most im-

portant school was destroyed; social and political institu-
tions were prohibited. Kanda, the structural base of the
African community life as well as its organizational patterns
were disorganized. “Those who were people became apes,”
says a popular folk song which shows how colonial tortures
transformed African people. We were people, but by ex-
ploitation we are made apes, working in corvee [Twabédi
kwéto bantu twayikidi bankewa; salanga! o kiniemo!].
The word Salongo, in lingala, is a deformation of
kik6ngo, “salanga”, which had in that case negative con-
notations during the colonial epoch. It signified dictator-
ship, wicked authority, forced work, exploitation, and
many other similar meanings. Today, it is a political motto,
pure and empty pretension of certain African govern-
ments used to lead their countries if not to the first, to the
second or to the third position of economic development,
but never to the fourth one.
African authorities, because of their lack of collaboration
with their well informed countrymen and scholars, tend to
reverse the national historical truth. This is the case of Sa-
longo in Mobutu’s “Zaire”, and many other cases. Salongo
was a popular folk song among civilians as well as among
militarymen. This folk song was the strongest popular song
criticizing and insulting the Belgian colonial authority in
Congo. This song is a veritable monument of attack against
colonialism, the leopoldian one in particular, in central
Africa during the time of what is known as “Effort de
Guerre” (war effort). I produce here the lingala version of
the song after corporal Bandi-Makaya, a veteran of
56
Historical Background of the Kéngo Cultural Zone
WWI(1914-1918), one of our best informants about our

national oral history collected by our efforts at Luyalun-
gunu lwa Kimba-nsi Institute.
Salongo
Eee
Salongo
Alinga mosala
Biso tokoma bakoko na bino
Kosalela bino
Mosala ya mbongo
Lokola ebende (machine)
Salongo
E-e-e
Salongo
Alinga mosala
Biso tokuma baumbu na bino
Kotekisa biso
Na Saki ya mungwa
Lokola mosolo
Salongo
E ee, etc.
Biso tokoma banyama na bino
Kokengela bino
Na porte ya ndako
Lokola bapaya
Salongo
Biso tokoma bangamba na bino
Komemaka bino
57
(Na) Mapeka na biso

Lukula ba mpunda
Mondele mobomaka biso

Lokola ba niama zamba
Likolo mabele
Bakoko batikila biso
Salongo
Opposition against colonialism and exploitation led the

country to fight for and win its freedom in 1960. The peo-
ple’s main goal at that time was to build the country upon
traditional positive cultural values of all our regions’ partic-
ularities. Values deeply rooted in our social organizations,
in our traditional unwritten legislatures, the fu-kia-nsi, the
national socio-structural systems.
Social Organization
The K6éngo society, as well as most African societies were
and still are, communalistic, i.e., each community self-de-
termines the social, political, economic organization and
leadership. “The K6ngo had a king up until the time of col-
onization, but his position was decidedly titular” and the
same author continues “The mode of production estab-
lished a minimum dependence between different commu-
nity segments and there was no private ownership of the
means of production.” (Kajsa, 1972:3)
Each local community or Vata, which is relatively inde-
pendant, has two or more Belo. Each belo has two or more
58
Miélo-nzo (sing Mwélo-nzo/mwélonzo). The Mwélonzo is

divided into Midyo (singular Méyo). The Méyo is also
termed as Buta. The Buta is the smallest but most impor-
tant institution in Kéngo social and organizational struc-
ture. It is here that basic family education is carried out:
language, parenthood relationships, a general knowledge
concerning local plants as an introduction to popular med-
icine, community or ethnic history (law, migrations, ances-
tors), etc. Each of these divisions is a social and political en-
tity which meets to discuss or to regulate community
problems under the leadership of the wisest and strongest
of the group.
The most important and powerful institution within
the community, vata, is the Belo. The Belo is symbolized
by its public house where social, political, economic and
organizational issues are discussed before being discussed
by the community assembly. This public house is called
Boko [mbéngi, yemba, lusanga, kidto], a word that liter-
ally means “house without rooms”, i-e., a house in which
privacy has no room. I give here certain proverbs related
ta that basically very important K6ngo social institution,
the BOKO:
1) “Boko wabokudisa nkuni mu vata.” It is the boko

that orders the collection of firewood in the village
(to make a fire circle for a public hearing).
2) “Vata dikéndo mbéngi diafwa.” A village without a

boko is dead. A society without institutions where
public freedom is warranted is straight to its fall.
0
3) “Boko wabokula mambu.” It is the boko that breaks

(cuts) the affairs in the community. All decisions in
the community are public agreements made in pub-
lic at ku boko, the public house.
“Boko wabéka mu vata...” It is the boko that calls

for meetings in the village. Boko, the entire com-
munity, decries a state of emergency in the commu-
nity.
>) “Mbila boko ni béto kulu,” the call of boko belongs

to all of us. Public institutions are public; individu-
als cannot make them private affairs. The public
call makes us all stand.
6) “Mbéngi wabénga mambu,” variant “Mbéngi

wabdkila mambu.” It is the mbéngi that takes care,
investigates, all affairs in the political, economic,
social, and diplomatic matters, in order to discuss
them publicly in the view and the hearing of all
community members. Community alone can do
what is best for its members.
?) “Lusénga wasangumuna mambu.” It is the boko

that raises problems and issues of all orders, be they
of yesterday, today, or the future. The community
alone is aware of the problems of its members. The
Boko/mb6éngi can undertake any project for the
welfare of its members.
8) “Lusanga didi dia kimvuka.” The lusanga/boko is

the center, think tank of community activities
OO
(mvemono). Outside of this “didi dia kimvuka,”

man’s activities are sterile.
9) “Yémba wayembamana mambu ma k4nda.” It is the

boko that covers community affairs. The commu-
nity covers more than what one can say.
10) “N’samu katoma ku kiéto; kabiya ku kidto.” All so-

lutions are Pp possible at ku boko. Conflicts are not
discussed outside of the community institutions.
11) “Kidto kidéko kia kanda kalambanga.” It is the

boko that cooks community inhalation. The com-
munity healing meal is made at the boko. The
boko is the healer of community diseases, prob-
lems of all orders.
The short list of these K6ngo proverbs shows how the

Boko is an important social institution among the Bantu-
K6éngo, where only public and community affairs are dis-
cussed. To speak about private affairs in this public insti-
tution, yemba, is a public crime. One does not plot inside
Kéngo public institutions. It is interesting to notice here
that the external part of a house, veranda, among the
Kéngo is called yémba, i.e., the public part of the house.
This part is for public use, to sit, work, gather, take shel-
ter or even sleep under it. The owner of the house has no
right against those acts. Another very interesting Kéngo
proverb/principle says “What you think belongs to you,
but what you say belongs to the public,” [Ma ku nsia n’-
tima, maku; matéle, ma ku mbazi.]. Inside you are you;
QO]
outside you are not. You are only a tiny part of a huge
and coherent body, the community within the universal
totality.
The community council of elders [mfindu a mbuta za
vata] meets in the boko. Their duties are to review and dis-
cuss all questions related to the community life and submit
their proposals to the community assembly of honored eld-
ers [f6ngo dia mfumu ye nganga za vata]. Members of the
community council are sent to the community assembly.
The boko is also the center, didi, of cultural information. It
is here that research or study on social problems is done. It
is here also that new members in the community, visitors,
make their first step toward integration in the community.
All personal and political alliances are made in the boko in
public view and by public accord. All decisions made ku
boko have “force de loi” (force of the law).
When the community assembly [f6ngo dia vata] meets,
delegations from other communities are free to participate
in the assembly in the interest of their own communities.
Here each belo, as a delegation, carefully handles all perti-
nent questions concerning the community life.
In any assembly, the community delegations can discuss
all issues pertaining to community except the three issues
of community/clan, land, taboo (Kanda, N’toto, Kina). The
community land is untouchable, it is considered taboo
[kina or n’'léngo] because it belongs first to the eternal
community roots, the ancestors, (the real living gods) as
well as to the people in the living community. Traditionally
every assembly must start with alternatively repeated mot-
toes called “bikdmu” (Fu-Kiau 1973):
02
Kimbisi: Kina kia n’toto!

Kimbi: Kina kia nsi
Kambisi: Kina kia nsi!
Kiambi: Kina kia n’kAngu!
Kambisi: Kina kia n’kangu!
Kambi: —Ndefi tka mu bakulu!
Kiimbisi: E n’singa-dikanda!
Kiimbi: Ninga ka tabuka ko!
Leader: The land taboo!

Audience: Country’s taboo!
Leader: | Country’s taboo!
Audience: People’s taboo!
Leader: People’s taboo!
Audience: Infallible oath!
Leader: | What about the community’s bio-string!
Audience: It must be strengthened, not be cut down
(weakened)!
These very powerful dialectical aphorisms and chants are

used by the Bantu-Kéngo when publically dealing with seri-
ous situations menacing a structurally fundamental, social
organization or institution, such as boko or a public good
such as land. Such “Kiimu”, dialectic aphorisms, are consid-
ered to be public legal oaths, and at the same time, become
social taboos, i.e., as Balikci states, “The first automatic de-
fense mechanism against uncontrollable and unpredictable
dangers” (Balikci, 1970:223). Defense mechanism values of
N’singa-dikanda’s accumulate by the community in the
course of time. The n’singa-dikanda is the moral, social,
“03
spiritual, cultural, and physical link between community

members, but also between them and their ancestors, the
eternal root not only of life, but also of the law. The n’singa-
dikanda is the biological string that links all community
members, dead or alive, to both ends of the rope.
Through its community council and community assem-
bly, the K6ngo society makes its laws and trains its youth for
national and community defense. Because the army had to
serve the community’s interest, it was the responsibility of
all people to educate their young men and women. “In the
K6ngo there was no real standing army. Soldiers were re-
cruited by general mobilization” (Kajsa, 1978:79). The
army in the old Kéngo was by and for all people. The main
mission of such a populist army was to kick all enemies out
of the ancestral taboo lands. The defense of the land was
and still is the cornerstone of oral and unwritten legislation.
One who knows the Kéngo land holding system, knows its
social organization, and therefore its concept of law and
crime in the past as well as the present.
The Ancestral Land

One of the essential characteriestics of the K6ngo system
of property is its inalienability. There is no valuable condition
that could change this inalienability of the ancestral land.
“Land was not a commodity to be bought and sold. Land was
inalienable in the traditional system. Each domain was owned
by a certain matrilineage which could indeed grant the use of
a part of its area to a relative or even foreign matrilineage, but
this did not mean that it gave up its land rights.” (Kajsa, 1978,
04
p 71). In their fu-kia-nsi, the unwritten law, the traditional

land system, the Kéngo say to sell community land is to carry
a mortal yoke[Wateka n’toto wa kanda neti ng6roro/vangu].
Malengreau also wrote about this same concept of the in-
alienability of the land among other Bantu people of the
Congo basin. He says that the African communalistic con-
cept of society was based on a very strong law, that of “the in-
divisisbility and the inalienability of the land” (cited by
Muller, 1956:13). Whoever does not have access to land is
dead; no matter how rich he/she is.
Contrary to what is happening in the Modern African
puppet states, with a few exceptions among the more pro-
gressive countries, “The chief of the community is not the
landlord, but only a manager of the interests of the com-
munity of which he is the head, (Muller, 1956). That is why
it was almost impossible to corrupt a true African societal
leader as the Kongo will say the community leader is un-
corrubtible for he knows kinswékila, corruption, is a pitfall
to the community and to the country, Mfumu-dikanda
katambulanga kinswékila ko, n’t€mbu kwa kanda ye nsi].
Today, kinswékila (embezzlement) has becine curtrent
money among leaders in Africa. When Africans talk about
what oral traditions say about land ownership, most schol-
ars, bought by capitalist-imperialist companies and corpo-
rations, often reply that they do not trust unrecorded tradi-
tions; they totally ignore what their friends, other fellow
scholars, have recorded about the African concept of land
ownership. There are many documents by western writers
and reporters on African oral traditions related to the issue
of land ownership. Most of them point out the upholding of
05
this concept throughout most African societies and com-

munities as one Africanist scholar writes, “The clan pos-
sesses lands in title of occupation and of use, i.e., to live on
it and for it. The right of occupation and the right of use
belong, not to the chief of the clan but to the entire collec-
tivity” (DeCleene, 1946:25).
Capitalist-imperialist forces did not understand the
African concept of the land holding. European colonial ex-
ploitation introduced the theory of “vacant land” in Africa
ignoring totally, as Malengreau (cited in Muller, 1956:10)
states that “The territory is the property of the community
... Vacant territory does not exist.” The uncultivated lands
left in the natural process of refertilization according to the
African traditional rotary system were seen by Europeans as
wasted and vacant lands. The African rotary system was in-
stituted in order to avoid the impoverishment of the soil in
a continent, such as Africa, with a very harsh and drastic
climate. Without knowing the reason for what they saw
and believed as a precarious abandonment of the land, they
seized it because they had firearms and made it “vacant.”
Due to the possession of arms and agressive technology, the
colonization ordered the expropriation and relocation of
native communities. They declared all of what was believed
to be vacant land the state’s land, i.e., the property of Eu-
ropean settlers, the colonialists. It was by this process that
the illegal and minority govenments of Southern Africa
seized the lands they occupy today, where they built the
most inhumane governmental system that man has experi-
enced since the beginning of time: the western, Christian,
apartheid system (in Zimbabwe and in Azania).
OO
The Congo Free State, freed from western penetration

through an ordinance on July 1, 1885, gave the mining
company of UMHK (Mining Union of Higher Katanga) an
area larger than half the size of Belgium. Many other do-
mains and concessions were also freely distributed to other
allies of imperialism (Kajsa, 1972:73). Lemarchande states
the same view “Thousands of acres were given to mission-
aries, private companies and settlers.” (Lemarchande,
1964:11). Only good and fertile land was expropriated.
Land was also automatically expropriated at any time once
a mineral was found on it. This expropriation of good, fer-
tile, and rich soil, between 1910 to 1930, became the prin-
cipal cause of malnutrition, disease, the increase of the
death rate, and a rural exodus. The transfer of African com-
munity land to capitalistic and private ownership was the
key to the destruction of the traditional African institutions
of law and justice. This same factor became, since 1950 to
the present, the main cause of struggle on the African con-
tinent, the struggle to free taboo ancestral land from the
hands of corporations and their allies.
The existing legislature in Africa cannot free the
African people because that legislature is sterile and alien-
ated from its true cultural and environmental milieu. It is
not rooted within the people’s culture. As Yabila says
“The law becomes sterile when one separates it from its
milieu” (Yabila, 1974:78). Its primary goal is to defend ex-
isting and future adventurists’ properties and interests in
African land, the people’s land which is a taboo ancestral
land. There needs to be a radical change in this legislature
today because “The law is not only a science, a set of
7
techniques of analysis, but a vehicle of culture” (Yabila,

1974:79). That law, in order to be take root in African so-
ciety and serve as a cultural vehicle, must rise from within
the people’s culture. The law must speak the same lan-
guage spoken by the people and be written in that lan-
guage. All modern African constitutions and laws are
written in foreign languages—the fact that they are writ-
ten in languages unknown by the majority of the African
populations, is already depriving the African masses of
one of their most important rights, that of knowing their
law. To understand the law fairly, exactly and completely
is a human right. African laws are not, in that case, writ-
ten for the African people, they are written for those who
are interested in exploiting Africa and its people in order
to facilitate their tasks, that of underdeveloping Africa.
In certain countries only 1% of the entire population
could read and understand the official language in which
laws are written (Fu-Kiau, 1969a:12). In many African
countries, documents, newspapers, and books related to
governmental activities often are not allowed to be sold in
the country. They are kept in secrecy from the citizens,
but exploitative companies and corporations have all
tights of access to them. This fact shows and proves that
most African governments work as agencies of foreign
governments.
Changes in matter of law are almost impossible in
Africa because of the state of African parliaments existing
there today “The parliament as it is . . . retards the appli-
cation of vital decisions and does not play its role of
guardian of the public interest” (Young, 1965:355).
O8
African parliaments cannot function with efficacity for

the people’s well being because of the external influences
which always try to “buy” all sons of the continent who
are supposed to be responsible for it. This situation has
gotten worse for the case of Zaire since the withdrawal of
the UN army forces in 1963. The removal of the interna-
tional forces from the Congo (Zaire) gave way to a new
situation: Neo-colonization and its intensification. The
country found itself in a situation where it could find no
solution to its problems. As Young says “There are no
doubt solutions, but no one among them leads automati-
cally to success because in all circumstances the external
influence became again more and more important since
the retreat of the UN forces (Young, 1965:356). As such,
internal struggles will continue in Africa until change in
the interest of the masses occurs.
The African masses fight today because their present
leaders continue to follow the path of a very negative cap-
italism, which is not their way of life. This capitalism results
in crimes against innocent and peaceful people by prevent-
ing them access to their ancestral tabooed land and the joy
of liberty; the liberty of political participation. The African
masses see the behavior of their leaders as a public crime.
They will be judged as well as their supporters.
Crime
One talks about “committing a crime” in western judi-
ciary language. But in most African cultures, and that of
the Kéngo in particular, one says “Nata n’kanu,” bearing
69
a crime. One must discuss the contrast between these

two concepts in order to more easily understand the
African concept of crime. This distinction is basically lin-
guistico-cultural. Understanding “les-jeux-des-mots”,
wordgames, is very important in any study of two or more
distinct cultures. A wordgame is a key word to intellec-
tual or scientific understanding. In English one “feels a
pain”; in Kongolese (Kikéngo), one “sees a pain,” [mona
mpasi]. When an Englishman “smokes a cigarette,” a
Mukéngo will “drink a cigarette” [nwa saka/nstinga]. In
English one “smells a certain perfume,” the Muk6éngo will
“hear it” [wa nsinga]. When western school defines man
as “an intelligent animal, an imperial animal” or as a
“toolmaker,” as do the non-initiated African scholars, the
westernized, i.e., the “kiyinga” in the African way of
thinking; the “NgAnga,” the intitated African man in the
African way of thinking, who is a specialist of perceiving
the world’s things, will, himself prefer to say that the
human being is a system of systems [Mantu i kimpa kia
bimpa]. He is also variably called “n’kingu a n’kingu’—a
principle of princples, i.e., the pattern of patterns. Be-
cause “mintu,” the human being, is the key system of sys-
tems, he is able as such to produce materially and tech-
nologically other mechanical systems!. For the Bantu, in
accordance to the concept expressed in the Kéngo lan-
guage, man is not an animal, nor is he comparable to one,
“mintu,” the human being has the dual [mwéla-ngindu]
1. For more information about Bantu-Kéngo thought, read the

forth coming book by Fu-Kiau, Makuku Matatu.
70
soul-mind that distinguishes him from the rest of the

things of nature’ [ma-bia-nsemono].
When the physical body dies, says a Mantu, the dual
[mwéla-ngindu] of that being remains within the commu-
nity or out of it. The dual of the being [Mwéla-ngindu],
continues to act and to talk to and among the community’s
members as well as to the world’s community, through
dreams and visions, waves, radiations, and through monu-
mental acts: the biological, material, intellectual and spiri-
tual treasures accumulated in scrolls [ku mpémba], the past,
i.e., the perpetual bank of the generating/driving forces of
life. (See figure 17). There is no end in the dingo-dingo
process, the perpetual going-and-coming-back of life as well
as in the Miintu’s [mwéla-ngindu]. Life is a continuum
through many stages (as discussed in Makuku Matatu). For
the Bantu, there is no death and no resurrection; for them
life is a continual proces of change. An animal’s life [zingu
kia bulu/médyo a bulu] does not have the dual [mwéla-
ngindu] soul-mind. It does not follow the process because
the animal is not a system of systems [kimpa kia bimpal]: it’s
not a vertical being, it is a prostrated being. Animals are hor-
izontal beings, they move and act instinctually. The mintu,
human being, is a V-H-being [kadi kiatelama lwimbanganga
va lukéngolo]. He stands vertically on his feet first, he
thinks and reasons before moving horizontally to meet the
challenges of life and of the world.
These differences in feeling, thinking and perceiving are
2. The translation of Mantu as a person or human being is more
accurate than the word “man,” which has its equivalents as
“bakala, mobali, jend” in certain Bantu languages.
71
Figure 20.
similar to the concepts of social and structural organization.

Outside of the expressions “drink tobacco” [nwa saka], pull
tobacco [benda fimul], suck tobacco [wéla nsfinga], and
[tompisa fumu] smoke or fire tobacco, it is almost impossible
to find in English the correct conceptual meaning a Mukéngo
gives to the term smoke in his or her tongue. This tells us how
impossible it is to impose a new system that cannot possibly fit
on a people who already have their own system of thought. In
the west one believes that he/she is born with his knowing
power (IQ). The African individual who is intitiated to prin-
ciples of life and living will say no. Knowledge (IQ) is not in
us. Knowledge is outside of us. The only thing we have in us
is the power to shelve the information or data in us and re-
produce it at will. One cannot dance with ease in a borrowed
wrap (N’lele ans6mpa ka utominanga makinu ko). It is wrong
for one system to try to manipulate or impose one’s way of
thinking upon other systems. Such an attempt only worsens
the world’s relationships, a confirmation of the total lack of
know how in the area of, knotting (coding) and unknotting
(decoding) in one’s own life [kanga ye kutula mu luzingul].
But let us go back to the concept of crime.
2
In the western concept, the individual seems to be re-

sponsible for his crime. He is either conscious or uncon-
scious of it; it is only committed by him. The western ex-
pression “to commit a crime” does not seem to have any
historic or cultural implication. But in the case of the
K6ngo, the expression, to bear a crime [nata n’kanu], there
are cultural, linguistic, social, environmental, and ge-
netic/biologic roots. The individual, before committing any
crime, carries a certain set of learned criminal concepts,
images, expressions, symbols, discussions, words, habits,
and facts upon diverse social scenes. In other words, for the
Bantu, a crime is the result of an internal psychological
state carried by an individual since his childhood, mainly
accumulated during the period of growth when the child
acquires social patterns. That state is given to him by his
social, cultural, physical, and systematic environment
within which he is bathed by negative as well as positive
waves/radiations [minika/minienie].
Crimes are not individual acts. They are, in many cases,
earlier social creations which do not appear until later, at
the moment they are committed by an individual who only
is the symptomatic furuncle of the criminal radiations ac-
cumulated within the society.
Crimes are found within social and cultural patterns; in
the food and in the way a society eats that food; in its
taboos; in its language, and the vocabulary used to com-
municate concepts, ideas, and values; in the way alien cul-
tures are interpreted, and in the way social, cultural and
ideological discrepancies are understood.
Before he goes to initiation [ku kAnga, ku kéngo or ku
73
l6nde] (Africa) or to school (other societies), the child

learns such concepts as steal, kill, lie, sin, rich, poor, mi-
nority, foreign, mine, yours, illogical people, reserved for
green people only, etc. It is through this kind of socializa-
tion that the concept of crime is transmitted to members of
a particular cultural system. Societies as well as systems pre-
pare their own foes and their own underminers. Crimes are
foes and underminers of societies and systems. They are the
conduct of societies and systems. The repetition of a crim-
inal act shows how bad a system is. Crime, for the Bantu-
K6ngo, is a learned behavior, and it is possible to eradicate
it from human society.
To teach young men any word that has a negative con-
notation for the community is regarded as injecting crimi-
nal roots within the community. The African people and
the Kéngo in particular, believe that the reason for com-
mitting a crime is relative to the crime and social or cul-
tural system in which he lives. In other words, a social sys-
tem either favors or does not favor crime. In pouring
war-like toys in our communities, children are engaged in
the easiest process of learning how to commit crimes. In
other words, the war-like toys’ industry has industrialized
crimes within human society.
When a crime is committed, judgment should not only be
passed on to the criminal, but also on to the entire commu-
nity in which the crime found its roots. A community in
which a man or a woman poisons his or her spouse would
have trouble finding new alliances with other communities,
and one will say to such a community: Be aware that that
community gives poison by all means [kAnda diddio ndikila
74
bavananga]. As a consequence, nobody will shake hands any-

more with someone from that community; nobody will polit-
ically deal with such a community; nobody will seek water in
such a community; nobody will dream to marry in such a
community no matter how beautiful the youngsters are in
that community; and nobody will seek a good friend in that
community. Such a social behavior among the Kéngo tells
how the crime is not seen as an individual act, but as a social
one. If the poison used was developed within the community
for other reasons other than killing, the community, its hold-
ers of the community [simbi bia kimvuka], will develop a
strong social and legal ethic about the use of that poison.
In a society in which people believe in the concept of
bearing crimes before possibly committing them, punish-
ment is first considered communal before being an individ-
ual matter, and as a consequence the elders discipline on
the young is very important.
The Kéngo society is a good example of a society whose
entire social structure is basically a taboo system. The most
important taboos are those related to the land, goods from
that land, and all matter related to the community name. As
such, most of what are considered crimes are related to the
issue of land, the source of all goods for the survival of life.
a) Crimes concerning the land
We have already said above that the right of land own-
ership belongs only to the community. No one in the com-
munity could claim private ownership to any position of the
land. To own or sell land is considered one of the most se-
rious crimes that an individual may commit, crimes for
which he may not be forgiven by community members.

Land, because it is an inviolable taboo, should remain in
the service of all community members.
During his lifetime a community member has the right to
harvest his fields and fruit trees, but after his death, the
land and all property on that land, i-e., fruit trees, houses,
industries, farms, etc. go back to community ownership.
This kind of property inherited by the community, accord-
ing to the basic concept and taboo of the inalienability of
the land, is called fwa-dia-kanda. The fwa-dia-k4nda is an
accumulated heritage that enforces community control of
land and all properties related to it. These properties con-
stitute the basic sources of kanda’s common-wealth
[mvwilu a kAnda] also called kimvwima kia kAnda or
mayudukwa ma kAnda used to solve kAanda’s diverse prob-
lems [landa n’samu mia nsi ye mia kanda] or to assist com-
munity members in time of need.
b) Individual wealth is an abominable crime
Individual wealth of all kinds above the accepted stan-
dard of necessary goods, is considered a crime. One says
that this kind of wealth could not be accumulated without
exploiting [wuka/yiba] other members of the community. In
that case, the wealth itself is called kimvw4ma kia muyeke,
wealth that betrays, yekula, the community and its mem-
bers. The owner of such excessive properties was often
killed or hoodooed [lokwa]. African communities believe
strongly that the individual accumulation of property has
always had negative effects on the traditional social struc-.
ture and on policy-making institutions.
70
The traditional social system of the Kéngo does not per-

mit rich people to lead national or community institutions
because a proverb says a rich man never talks or fights for
other people’s interest unless it is to further his own inter-
ests. [Mvwdma nsusu; kanw4na, m4ki mandi kat4nini]-
That is why traditionally, wealth does not play a role in ei-
ther the social ranking system or alliance making among
the Bantu (Muller, 1956:8). This situation is changing
today because the same rich individuals have the power to
buy. guns which give them not only more power, but the li-
cense to kill whoever they declare as dangerous. Firing
squads are increasing throughout the African continent,
not of criminals, but of innocent individuals who are chal-
lenging corrupt practices of politicians.
c) To misrepresent his kimvuka is a political crime
A Kéngo proverb says politics is a community matter; the
individual does not make community policies, for individual
policy was unknown since the time of the ancestors [Kinz6nzi
kia kAnda; kia kingenga bakulu (ka) bastsa kio ko]. The indi-
vidual does not make community policies says another
Kéngo proverb one mouth is an empty calabash [N’nwa mosi
tutu]. K6ngo traditional thought explains clearly that all peo-
ple develop and direct community policies. Individuals do
not make policy even though they are allowed to represent
the community by delegation. An individual who is going to
represent the community policy is publicly tested before
being sent on any diplomatic mission. If he fails by misrepre-
senting the community he is buried alive in a public place,
generally in the market place, zandu (Munzele, 1965).
77
To misrepresent the people or the community insists

Mbuta Munzele in his marvelous book on Kéngo traditions,
is to compromise the: future of the community. In order to
show the seriousness of such a political crime, in accor-
dance to the law, the criminal was buried alive publicly in
the market place. Before his burial, the criminal made a
public statement of his crime, gave advice to future repre-
sentatives of the community policy and diplomacy, and
thereafter he was thrown alive in a burial hole. Mbuta
Munzele clearly tells us that his diplomatic mission [kin-
tumwa kia maghibi /kinimal6nde] was one of the most
dangerous functions. Failure in such a mission led straight
to a cruel and inevitable death.
Political and diplomatic missions were akin to deification
for those who knew how to handle the people’s responsbil-
ity. Coming back from an important and successful mission
for my community, a stmbi kia nsi, literally, holder of the
country’s equilibrium, a wise man took my hands, spit on
them, and said: “If you season the policy of people and the
community correctly, you are deified” [Watwisa miingwa ye
ndngu mu kinz6zi kia n’kangu ye kanda, zAmbusu]. This
K6éngo proverb shows us that only obedience to the peo-
ple’s will makes people heroes and gods and not otherwise
for the red carpet is not requested, it is earned [nkwAl’a luz-
itu ka yilombwanga ko].
Because of the embodiment of this concept of others be-
fore oneself, the Bantu’s daily expression tends to eliminate
the subjective and egoistic use of “I” when dealing with im-
portant social issues. They prefer to build their thought on
“ancestral” basis, i.e., historic and taboo basis, the accumu-
Historical 3ackground of the K6ngo Cultural Zone
lated knowledge snd experience: the ancestors in their ex-

perience have said or the past says [Bakulu bata ngana] or
[Bambuta bata ngana]; according to ancestors’ law [Ngana
yata bambuta]; the spiritual holders of the country have said
[Simbi bia nsi vo]: accordingly to the unwritten law, the tra-
ditional constitutions [Landila fu-kia-nis]; Country’s prac-
tices, norms, values, patterns, and systems do not say it
[Kisinsi ka kitéle bo ko], etc. All these expressions are judi-
ciary, legal and sententious expressions mainly used in pub-
lic statements, orto fit ones own thought within the frame-
work of social patterns and values, but also to avoid
culpability before the law and public condemnation of self-
ishness. There isno creation outside of people. Pretended
individual creation, according to Kongo thought, is a lie and
a social crime: creations are collective works, because they
are people’s accumulated thoughts [Mpangulu mayindu
mantotikisa]. In other words, they germinate from collec-
tive ideas. Notice here that the period in which proverbs
were created [tandu kiatewa ngana], is a broad historical
period that transpires before colonization; a period in which
the African Mintu was able to think and create freely.
There is a huge :plit between that period and the present
time in Africa. The present Africa “swims” within a period
without “ngana,” (principles, theories, concepts or systems),
this is a period o: the oppressed man, i.e., the man without
a brain, a brainwashed man. This is the suffering Africa, be-
cause it goes against, autocritique and collective dialectics
[ntungasani ye kinz6nzi], its own concepts.
For the Bantu, and the Kéngo in particular, it is a crime to
own property that is worth more than the standard wealth of
ny
ordinary members of the community. Such property could

not be obtained by honest means without taking the path of
exploiting the community and its members [wuka kimvuka
ye biéla bidndi]. Here is a widespread aphorism that commu-
nity members sing (cite) before a meeting that deals with se-
rious social, political, economic or criminal issues within the
community (excerpt from Makuku Matutu).
Mu kanda
Within the community
Ka mukadi mputu
There is no room for poverty
Mu kanda
Ka mukadi mvwama
There is no room for ill obtained wealth
Mu kanda
Ka mukadi mpofo
There is no room for blindness
Mu kanda
Ka mukadi mfumu
There is no room for “order-giver”
Ka mukadi n’nanga
There is no room for slaves
Babo mfumu na mfumu
All are masters, and only masters
Babo nganga na nganga
All specialists, and only specialists
80
Mu kanda
Bilesi
Young generations
Mu kanda
Mwana mfumu
Ancestors’ sons
Mu kénda
Busi/nsang’a kanda
A sister, the community shoot
Mu kanda
Nkasi a kanda
A brother, the future leader
Mu kanda
Kinenga ye dedede
Equilibrium and equality
Mu kanda
Kingenga/kimpambudi mwanana
There is no room for separatism/privacy
Mu kanda
Sékila kumosi
All sleep at once
Mu kanda
BI
Sikamana kumosi
All wake up at once
Mu kanda
Mbéni ku mbazi
Enemies stand out
This very poetic and political aphorism of folk teaching

demonstrates how the dialectical philosophy of “primitive”
African collectivism is rooted among African societies in gen-
eral, and among the Bantu in particular. African collectivism
practised among the Bantu-Kéngo rejects poverty as well as
private ownership of property such as land, industries, means
of production, etc. Such properties should only be owned and
controlled by the community. The attention in this commu-
nity is more centered on man as part of a body, the commu-
nity, [kanda/mumvuka]. As such, that part must obey the
community law, and not the contrary of that n’kingu, princi-
ple. The Kéngo concept of wealth and kAnda does not mean
that the Kéngo reject the practical money value; they, of
course, do need money within the community to serve its
members, not to oppress them, for they say—When you en-
gender offspring, you must also engender the material goods
to secure their life [Wabuta, buta na mbéngo].
Debate Process
According to Kéngo: social, political, economic, and ju-
diciary matters must be discussed publicly. This concept is
confirmed by the frequent use of two proverbs: There is no
82
privacy in affairs [Kingenga kia mambu kwanAna], and for

want of going alone, the river is curved [Nto wayenda
bukaka wak6ndama]. All problems related to man within
this context are social, economic, and political. And all so-
cial, economic, and political problems are problems of the
peoples’ interest; they should be discussed publicly to in-
struct both idiot and intelligent individuals [Mazoba ye
bandwénga balwéngila mo].
The existence of public courts [Mbasi-a-n’kanu or fun-
dusulu] among the Bantu exemplifies how community life
was more important than that of a particular individual de-
spite the material wealth he has, “Wealth does not play a
role in the social ranking system, or in alliance making.”
(Muller, 1956:8). Human and communal values are more
important than all the property a rich man may possess.
When conflict occurs within the community, the eldest
of elder leaders calls for a public hearing/meeting with a
general delay of one to two weeks if the issue does not need
an immediate solution (the Kéngo traditional week had
four days). He may urge that the meeting take place sooner,
if it is a serious situation. This meeting always takes place
beneath the shadow of a tree under which the court of
judgment [Kianzala kia mfundusulu] is arranged. Under
this tree experts investigate the issue at hand, its ramifica-
tions, and its effects on the community life. The debate is
carried on dialectically through diverse songs, slogans,
proverbs, aphorisms, calls and responses followed by com-
ments. The accused is seated within the circle and any
community member is allowed to ask this person questions.
The main goal of this procedural investigation is to under-
RS
stand social problems and conflicts through the accused

and therefore try to find a remedy to cure him as well as the
entire community [nzila mu lamba kidko/kiéto kia kanda].
When the discussion of the case is over, two commis-
sions [mfaindu] are set up. The first, a commision of deci-
sion [mfGndu za luzéngo], and the second, a commission
of social reintegration [mfaindu za lutambudulu or
mffiindu za binddkila]. The first commission is established
specially to take judicial measure fitting the case, e.g.,
death in case of extreme violation of communal law and
taboo. This commission is only composed of men and
women considered as outstanding dialecticians/judges
[Zonzi biakafu-kafu], and whose names are chosen be-
cause of their interest in the total defense of the commu-
nity and the inalienability of the ancestral land.
The second commission [mftindu za lutambudulu] or the
reintegration ritual commission is more ethical than the ju-
diciary one. Its mission is to find out means and a process
by which social balance will be reestablished and its law re-
inforced. But also, in the case of small infractions, to estab-
lish a ritual process by which the guilty or the deviant will
be reintegrated in the community life by the ritual of for-
giveness [Yambudila] (Fu-Kiau, 1969:68—70) or, in the case
of a criminal, how he will be healed or punished.
Each commission gives, orally and in detail, a complete
report to the public. It is up to the public to accept or to re-
ject the commission’s proposed decision. In case of public
rejection, the case is left, very often, in the hands of the
elders and the decision made by these men and women is
rarely rejected. It is said to be very frightening anytime the

womens’ side favors a strong decision.
Elders, in the Kéngo judiciary structure, form the high-
est body of justice, the court, [mbasi-a-n’kanu]; in other
words, judiciary institutions in the Kéngo system are com-
munal and independant. The king’s duties were more
diplomatic, martial, and monetary rather than internal ad-
ministration, “Each community was a real state within the
kingdom” (Fu-Kiau 1973).
The Kéngo concept of law and crime as described here
is not well known by the outside world, even by those who
were their oppressors, the former colonial masters. This
ignorance is due to two main factors: (1) The ethnocen-
trism of the western world as built upon the colonial phe-
nomeyon which is seen as “The domination of a native
majority by a minority of foreigners in the name of racial
and cultural superiority” (Balandier, cited in William,
1972:8). This notion of racial and cultural superiority pre-
vented the colonialists from objectively seeing the cul-
tural values of the colonized. (2) Colonial masters had a
different goal in Africa contrary to the one often stated as
the “Mission of civilization.” Their goal was and still is the
exploitation of natural wealth or resources in order to fur-
ther their own economy back home. “There is no devel-
opment here, but only commercial exploitation of natural
wealth” (William, 1972:10), and he continues “To sum
up, all aspects of the . . . venture were subordinated to
purely economic consideration. The educational system
produced the skilled and semi-skilled workers needed for
the exploitation of the Congo, while missionary organiza-
85
tions installed in these same workers a morality based on

order and authority. Because of these goals conlonialism-
imperialism did all in its power to destroy African cultures
and traditions (what it continues through present African
leaders) in order to deepen its racist and exploitative phi-
losophy that left the heritage problems faced in Africa
today. Fortunately they were not able to destroy the
African “vibrating rolls/knots” of the period of thinkers
[tandu kiatewa ngana] which are accumulated “ku
mpémba, the perpetual bank of driving forces of life.
Yet Africa is in conflict today because of these artificial
structures established by artificial African law, a law that is
against the will of the African people. Africa struggles be-
cause it seeks to cut itself away from all the exploitative
chains it is tied to. All investments, properties, concessions,
etc. granted today in Africa under the present artificial law,
are not secure for African systematic way of organization
[Kimpa kia kisinsi] will not tolerate such departures from
our kisinsi, the African way of life organization, and be-
cause these proprietorships support present inhumane
regimes throughout Africa. Sooner or later Africa will un-
cover, through cultural driving forces, its taboo principles,
the law of the inalienability of the ancestral land, etc.
Whatever capitalism or communism may do in Africa by
corrupting its leaders, Africa will never adopt any of these
systems because none of them, in all their betterment,
could fit well in Africa. The African future will be built on
its own norms and values that are deep-rooted in its own
systems, which are unfortunately unknown by the great
majority of its leaders, our African Kisinsi. Since this system
8O
is not discussed scholarly elsewhere, it seems important to

me, before ending this chapter, to describe shortly what
makes the main difference between this system and other
systems, i.e., capitalism and socialism/communism
[Kinyudiki/Kimayudukwa ye Kimumvuka/KikintwAdi].
Capitalism, on a national level, is a system whereby the
work of the majority of people produce the wealth for a few
individuals who are owners of means of production. On an
international level, capitalism is a system by which the
world’s developing countries provide the work and raw ma-
terials, to make the wealthy minority gain. In other words,
the slavery of man by man is the basic source of capitalism
and its expansion in the world. This capitalistic view is dif-
ferent from the communistic one. Communism, on the
contrary, is a system that tries to control in the name of the
state the wealth and the land of a given country pretending
equality among its citizens. These two systems, capitalism
and communism/socialism are, by all means, in the African
view equally imperialistic systems. These two systems are
the cause of the world’s insecurity because of their superfi-
cial antagonism. Because of the lack of their mutual under-
standing they are destructors of international institutions,
and above all, they are killers of the world’s order and its
leaders. They are indeed “oiseaux de méme plumage” (birds
of the same feather) whatever their tensions are. Neither
system lives without their hand on the gun because they
only own by the art of killing.
Contrary to capitalism and communism/socialism, the
African “Kisinsi”: is different. What the Bantu-Kéngo,
Luba, Mongo, Nyarwanda, Zulu, etc., constitute in their
87
daily life is a system [kimpa/fu] whereby the land, source of

happiness and blessing to all terrestrial life, belongs not to
individuals, landlords, or to a state, as it respectively exists
in the case of capitalistic and communalistic systems, but to
the essential fundamental community, kanda, and all its
members, be they poor, rich, scholars, idiots, young or elder.
They all have full access to that inalienable land. As a
Kéngo proverb says, “Community land is our life” [N’toto
wa kanda ni méyo éto].
The Kisinsi is a system by which the chief is a symbol, the
maAmbu, (literally words, affairs, policy) belong to the people
of the community (society) in its entirety. In the African sys-
tem, Kisinsi, the individual is never a land belonging to
heirs. The right to heritage belongs to the community only.
The African Kisinsi is explicit here by the K6ngo society,
that it is a system where leadership is a moving force [Kim-
fumu ma kiantiimba] held through the “stooling” process
[mu ntdimbulu] under the control of all social forces
throughout their political, philosophical, religious, and pro-
ductive relationships in all locative levels, conceptually and
cosmologically generated here (see figures 6 through 17)
from Kala, emerging life level and its growth towards lead-
ership, to Tukula, present authorities’ level and its leader-
ship; from Tukula, through Luvémba, the step for greatest
change and for abandonment of all negative accumulated
elements within the system, to Musoni, the social jinn,
[stmbi bia nsi], the step for regeneration of forces, poten-
tialities, and vitality needed to reshape and rebuild the sys-
tem, i.e. the rebirth of the process, or the dingo-dingo, the
constant back and forth flow of energy of change. On the
88
basis of these cosmological ideas, the concept of dictatorship

is impossible in the African Kéngo-Kisinsi discussed here
through its cosmological ideas.
The Kéngo-Kisinsi is a conceptual system which is aware
of Mwisikanda, the human community members, rather
than about outsiders’ interests [n’luta mia banzénza]. Kisinsi,
a strong and fundamental African system that would build a
strong Kisafelika, is not a chauvinistic system of philosophy.
The Kisinsi is a huge tree which strongly emphasizes first, a
positively peaceful and fraternal neighborhood among all its
branches: On Kisafelika and Bisafelika, strong neighborhood
in continental states and their inhabitants; on Kisinsi, strong
neighborhood within the national diversities; on Kisikanda,
strong neighborhood in the ethnic groups and communities;
on Kisiziinga, strong neighborhood in local communities; on
Kisivata, strong neighborhood in the village’s subdivisions
such as belo, mwélonzo, méyo and buta?. The Kisinsi deals
with all mintu, human beings, as part of the human race
and its community survival.
The Kisinsi is a system of philosophy fundamentally
based on tolerance. The Kisinsi punishes with care and
3. The particle “kisi” is a prefix meaning norms, values, beliefs,
system belonging to. Don’t confuse this prefix with the prefix
“ki” preceding proper nouns which means tongue of or doctrine
set up by, philosophy of, e.g. Kik6ngo (language of K6ngo people,
Bak6ngo); Kiswahili (language of Waswahili); Kisokrate (doc-
trine, theory or philosophy of Sokrate: Socratism); Kikimbangu
(doctrine set up by Kimbangu:Kimbanguism, 1921); Kilenine
(doctrine and theory of or about Lenine: Leninism); Kiklisto
(Christism, not Christianism); Kibaklisto (christianism).
SY
love; it regulates social conflicts in the ways of love and au-

tocraticism [zola ye ntungasani]. As a member of Kisinsi, a
Mwisinsi does not arm himself against another mintu, be-
cause he himself is a mdintu, a being under the control of
the dual soul-mind. He wants to see in all freedom other
soul-minds develop in other bodies as in one’s self in order
to live [zinga, i.e., tambula ye tambikisa] receiving and
passing on. Because systems do not have the dual [mwéla-
ngindu] by themselves, they become worse when led by
leaders whose soul-mind development is under the lowest
level of human value understanding. The Kisinsi, as
kimpa/system in bad hands, becomes a killer and does kill.
Mantu, the soul-mind-object [ma kia mwéla ye nitu],
should not kill other soul-mind-objects as a respect to him-
self and to his bumantu (mindfulness). When a mintu, in
whatever intention, kills another miantu, he looses his state
of inner human being [mbélo a kimintu], i.e., that of the
soul-mind-object. He identifies himself with an animal, the
no-soul-mind-object. Then he loses his verticality [kin-
tombayulu], the power to think before making any deci-
sion, to yield for horizontality [kilukéngolo], the power to
act instinctively as do all prostrated beings.
The act of killing soul-mind-objects is the strongest fac-
tor that reveals not only the weakness of a leader, but also
his complex of inferiority and all kinds of psychological
problems it may reveal. This is, in short, the main ideas that
explain the Kisinsi upon which the African concept of law
and crime discussed in this chapter find their roots. It is
upon this sytem that Africa is going to build its future with
its doors largely open not only to its “best friends”, if they
90
do exist, but to all its enemies, because they are well

known, for they are constituted as human beings, i.e., nat-
urally, rightly and legally co-owners of our planetary land.
African leaders must see today’s world policy differently
in order to understand carefully from the bottom of their
hearts the role that Africa should play in the future of the
human beings that we all are, for the peace of this world.
African leaders should deeply understand that the conti-
nent they are leading today has a special mission. A mission
that should develop a new order which will save humanity
and this world. As a Negro Slave, Hollis Read, wrote more
than a century ago, “Africa has been reserved for the de-
velopment of a higher order of civilization.”* Such an order
and responsibility will never be conceived by the awaken-
ing of Africa if its leaders continue to follow the path of
present world tensions based on ideological antagonisms,
and, moreover, if African leaders found African nations
upon personal prestige, corruption, human torture, incon-
ceivable expenditures, meaningless projects rather than
seeking solutions to real, social problems posed throughout
the continent among its inhabitants: Housing, nutrition,
water, disease, education, transportation, poverty, rural ex-
odus, and agricultural development.
. I think it is a social crime for any African authority “pay-
ing” himself, say $5,000 monthly in a country with an eco-
nomic system where more than 90% of the citizens, be-
cause of the poor national planning policy, live with less
than $100 for the entire year. Today’s African leaders do
4H Read, 1864: The Nego Problem Solved, p. 25.
0|
not seem to be paid. They go as many times as they want to

the national bank and “load” trunks of their cars with any
amount of money they desire. For them every weekday is a
payday. It is a universal shame for foreign governments to
support such policies, whatever be their interests, in such
corrupted, undemocratic and bankrupted nations. The fall
of such governments will weigh more on their supporters
rather than on the supported individuals themselves.
To Africans of all ages it is about time to rethink what
the K6ngo ancestors aphorismically said once “Don’t allow
the exploitation to repeat itself” [Nkutu a zéngi fwanda
lumbu kimosi].
Proverbs Used Within the Community

About the Community
Ngana zitewanga mu kanda mu didmbu dia kanda

When the African in general, and the Kongolese
[N’kéngo] in particular, uses the expression “bambuta bata
ngana” or “ngana yata bambuta/kingana kiata bambuta” lit-
erally proverbs/theories said by ancestors - he refers, ac-
cording to the context to a philosophical, social, dialectical,
theoretical, legal or judiciary statement. In that case
bambuta bata ngana may explicitly refer to one among the
following explanations:
According to the unwritten law of our society

Accordingly to the law
Accordingly to the custom
))
According to the ancient theory

Conformity to the law
Conformity to the social patterns, norms and values
In accordance to the well known cases
Conformity to our principles
The law says
In accordance to the exigencies of the system
Let’s consult the law
Our concept of the law tells us that
Legally that means...
Legally speaking . . .
Judiciary speaking .. .
The law says
The law is. . . etc.
The proverb is one among the most important sources

that best explain the African Mfntu and-his thought. In
debates, in ceremonies, in judgments, in joy as well as in
misery, proverbs are freqeuntly used to reprimand, to criti-
cize, to compare, to segregate, to encourage, to punish, and
to heal. They are used to teach, to explain and to thor-
oughly code and decode [kAanga ye kutula].
For African people, proverbs constitute a special lan-
guage. Sometimes, for many, proverbs are considered both
a secret and a sacred language in their communication
where the expression—‘“talk in proverbial language”
[z6nzila mu bingana], an expression used within the com-
munity to prevent the leak of very fundamental principles
of the society, i.e., to prevent the outsider from auditing the
debate to have access to any basic systematic concepts of
the structural organization of the society, especially it’s se-
we
crecies. Once I was talking to an audience of more than

thirty intellectuals and a friend of mine passed me, through
the audience, a written word saying. “In such spots/places,
talk superficially, don’t dig at the bottom of things” [Ta
mayulu-yulu mu béndo bia mpila yayi]. African people are
very sensitive to what touches their conceptual bases.
Although African people enjoy talking in proverbial lan-
guage, they also recognize that the use of this very philosoph-
ical language is dangerous, even mortal. Because of the dan-
ger presented by this language, one must understand perfectly
the meaning of the proverb one uses because one kingana
says “Wata ngana bangula ngana kadi Na Kimbdénga-ngana
wafwila mu ngana”—literally, know the explanation of any
proverb you use for sir “Proverb-teller” died upon the proverb
he used. One may be condemned for what one says.
Proverbs, as a means of intellectual communication of
great ideas within the community, are said and learned
within the community, at a public house [ku mbéngi], in
the market place, during the initiation period, during the
work time, anywhere in the bush, on the street, at home as
well as while running during a hunting party.
Proverbs, in African context, are laws, reflections, theo-
ries, customs, social norms and values, principles, and un-
written constitutions. They are used to justify what should
be said or what has been said. Proverbs play a very impor-
tant ethical role in storytelling, legends, etc. Very often par-
ents as well as griots [n’samuni], and storytellers end their
tales by very fitting proverbs.
African proverbs are numerous and diverse. They deal
with people, God, ancestors, animals, forests, goods, money,
4
ideas, wars, sun, moon, time, social problems, education,

food, life, ku mpémba (ancestor’s world) traditions
(kinkulu), history (kikulu), plants, insects, etc. We give here
a short list of K6ngo proverbs, related to the community, in
order to show our readers how rich these proverbs are, and
perhaps they could reshape our corrupted young nations in
Africa. Proverbs are laws [n’siku], principles [n’kingu]. They
define the African human rights [n’swa] as well.
It is my belief that African nations will not possibly be
built upon outsider [fu] systems, as this proverb tells us
“Kénda ka dittingwanga va lwéka lwa fu kia nsi ko”—com-
munity is not built outside the social system of its inhabi-
tants. The nation [nsi], like the community [k4nda], must
be built upon the national social system [fu-kia-nsi]. To
build one’s own society outside of one’s own system is not
only to weaken that society, but to destroy it. When a soci-
ety is destroyed from its roots, one must expect all kinds of
ailments that might accompany that destruction: disorgan-
ization, corruption, embezzlements, internal wars, insecu-
rity, bankruptcy, violence, hostility against oneself, social
injustice, poverty, famine, disease and death in masses.
Certain educated Africans pretend being more intelli-
gent and more skilled than their uneducated ancestors. |
don’t know. Maybe it is so, but.the same intellectuals forget
what one says about those uneducated ancestors: Our an-
cestors did not have dictionaries or encyclopedias; true, but
by their experiences, proverbs, and their sincere autocri-
tiques, they did maintain and save the national and com-
munity security [Bakuly ka bavwa dingu ko, i ngeta; kansi
mu nkuma, ngana ye ntungasani zAau zakedika baltinda lu-
vuvamu lwa nsi ye kanda]. Could our intellectuals pretend

to maintain that our communities’ members are safe, se-
cure, happy and well fed today? Maybe they do in their in-
tellectual way, but I cannot say so. Besides, no generation
in any society can claim superiority upon the former one.
Learning and progress (civilization) are both building block
processes. One does not exist without the other.
Regardless of our rejection of what we should really be,
sooner or later, our nonsense intellectual realizations
within our communities will be destroyed unless they are
rooted on our social system [fu-kia-nsi], be they social,
economical, political, philosophical, etc. The study of our
languages may enable us to understand the systems, what
they were, in case they were destroyed by the aggressor.
Proverbs are one of the best ways that our concepts are
well coded and thoroughly kept. Proverb study is a very
rich and broad field that all African thought and wisdom
lovers, linguists, philosophers, and all knowledge lovers
should investigate. Proverbs for one main reason, in any
African context, are regarded as the warehouse of the an-
cient African wisdom. They are very meaningful by them-
selves, and paramount in historical, philosophical, legal,
religious and theoretical information about African
schools of human knowledge. African youths and modern
scholars must dig deeply for that knowledge if they wish to
develop new theories about the development of modern
Africa according to its realities. It is not a degradation to
our young scholars if they do have some time to spend at
our griots’ feet to be “fed” by the past experience [nkuma],
our cultural heritage [fwa dia lusAnsu lwéto].
VO
The young African “scholars” must agree that one’s as-

similated education is sometimes very meaningless within
the context of African realities. Aware of this situation, it is
advisable that one seeks, after one’s studies abroad, contact
with village sages to learn about their opinions for “The
true leaders of opinion are not always the stereotyped well-
educated, professional individuals active in official or vol-
untary work (M. Kochen, 1976:18).”
In a small area, Manianga, in Lower-Congo, students of
Luyalungunu lwa Kamba-nsi Institute collected more than
1,500 proverbs and proper nouns in a short time. No one
could convince those young people that African people did
not have logical systems as it is always charged by certain
biased groups. For them, thinkers such as Socrates, Plato,
etc., existed only in the West. Africa did, as it does today,
have its own “masters of thought” because their ideas re-
main with us: proverbs, legends, tales, myths, etc., even
though their names are not known, because names are not
very important in the African concept in the process of art
creation. No one creates alone.
The proverbs below are excerpted from the unpub-
lished Dictionary of Nouns and Proverbs Kéngo, [Dingu kia
Nkaimbu ye Ngana Zéto], collected under our direction
(1964-73). This short list shows us how strong the con-
cept of kanda (both a biological and social community) is
among the Bantu people in particular and among African
people in general.
The Kongolese word “kanda” has always been translated
within western literature of Africa, in the anthropological
point of view, as “clan”, a word which has a negative con-
4)7
notation. This is not the way it is seen and understood by

ourselves. As such, to be clear, the concept of community
as it can be seen and understood in the African world does
not exist in developed countries of the west. In those coun-
tries, from the African point of view, the word “commu-
nity” is a meaningless word, empty of its meaning: Do you
have any problem with foes, don’t you believe it, if the po-
lice do not come as soon as possible, you may be killed on
the street by that group and no one from your pretended
community will dare to come out of his house to save your
life. Their concept of law says so: “Don’t involve yourself in
somebody’s elses affairs; that is his business.” And this is
the concept of law that the modern African is involved in,
that is why our continent is swimming in blood.
Now let’s examine these few proverbs, i.e., Kongo
thoughts related to the concept of “kanda”, community;
thoughts which are frequently repeated within the commu-
nity about the community:
1) Kanda mukitu, variant Kanda mutu.

The community/society did exist before you; the
community leads everything, for it is the head.
What is good for the community is good for its
members. Everybody is a social product. One ac-
cepts the community as it is, not as one wants it
to be.
2) Kanda wak4ndula biéla bia kanda.

The community massages its members’ organs. The
community solves community problems.
Ys
3) Kanda wakanda mambu.

The community leadership prevents problems and
conflicts within the community. It is the responsibil-
ity of the community to create laws for its members.
4) Vo zéyi kanda, zéyi Nz4mbi.

If you know the community you know God. God is
only visible through our attitude vis-a-vis our
neighbors. Our existence creates God’s existence.
5) Nz4mbi mu kanda (kena).

God (exists) in the community. The natural princi-
ple of change transmits itself perpetually in us
through the community continuum.
6) Untéla n’kingu miankulu (mia kanda) kidi yaz4ya

miampa, variant Wata diampa teka ta diankulu.
Tell me the old principles/theories in order to un-
derstand the new ones. All educational process is
gradual. Don’t reverse the historical truth. History
accumulates itself. One can only build on old ma-
terials. Natural laws are irreversible. To be born,
one has first to be conceived. Before laughter there
is funny hearing.
7) Mbéngo a kanda ka mboéngo 4ku ko.

The community’s goods are not your goods. Public
wealth is not private wealth. Don’t put your hand
upon public goods (wealth).
8) Mu kanda, babo longa ye longwa.

Within the community everybody has the right to
Q
teach and to be taught. Education is a matter of

reciprocity. True knowledge is acquired through
sharing.
9) N’kingu mia kanda n’kingu mia nsi.

Principles (theories) of the community are also na-
tional principles. What belongs to the community
belongs to the nation. What is private to a group is
public to all groups. Individual productions con-
tribute to community wealth.
10) KAnda ka ditingwanga va lwéka Iwa fu kia nsi ko.

The community, as well as the nation, is not built
outside of its social system. A society is its con-
cepts, be they political, philosophical, social or
economical.
11) Kanda n’landa: bankaka kwénda; bankaka kwiza,

variant
Kanda ngongo: bankaka kwénda; bakaka kwiza.
The community is a channel: people go (die), peo-
ple come (are born). The community renews per-
petually its members and its principles accordingly
to its [fu] systems, conforming to the natural laws,
that of birth and death, the theory of [makwénda-
makwiza], what goes will come back, the perpetual
process of change through [dingo-dingo], the con-
stant back and forth flow of [ngolo zanzingila] liv-
ing energy.
12) Kutémbi didi dia minika mia kanda vo kwena

mu kénda ko.
100
Don't seek for the center of social waves if you don’t

belong within the community and its sytem. Do not
force open somebody else’s system’s door when it is
not open to you. The study of a system is possible
only if it opens itself.
13) Dia ye nwa, walambalala; bwatGngulwa bwala

kuzéyi bo ko.
Eat, drink, and then sleep for you ignore how the
village was built. Just watch and see, don’t be in-
volved in fundamental social issues of cultural and
systematic discrepancies.
14) Kutémbi didi dia (ngolo za) zinga ko kwidi

zangwa (cfr 2).
Don't seek to know the regional center of driving
forces for fear of being confined by these forces.
15) Simbi bia nsi (bia kinda) mu kilémbo binikukinanga.

Societal leaders move and act through masses. A
true leader mingles in the crowd. A leader that
stands aloof to his people is a puppet.
16) Kanda diakuta Nzandu, nkio? diawunuka, uk-

itéle Zindu. Nga zéyi diswasani diena va kati
kwa Nzindu ye Zindu e?
The community named you Nzindu,® you thought
5. Nkio’, shortening of nkidéngono.

6 Nzfindu; anvil—symbol of productivity within the community.
Name given to a child wherein the community hopes that his
birth will revive its stagnant economy.
lOl
it was mistaken itself; you call yourself Zindu’. Can

you tell the existing difference between Nzindu
and Zindu?
This proverb contains a very simple, but basic
philosophical truth about proper noun meaning
among the African people, the self, ie., a) to be
what one is, and b) to try to realize what the com-
munity (society) expects from you in accordance to
the label (name) you bear. If the community wants
you to be “Community-Anvil” [Nzindu-a-k4nda],
be that community “Anvil” and don’t make yourself
a “Frog-Within-The-Community” [zGndu-mu-
kandal], ie. a “Drunkard-Within-The-Community.”
(For more information read our Makuku Matatu,
Chapter 2).
17) Nga nzénza mintu katinga fu kia bwala?

Could a strange person build a favorable social sys-
tem of a village that is not his own? Community
members only, of a given society, are able to do
what a stranger cannot do for its safety as well as for
its human well-being. No one can do better for you
than yourself.
?. Zandu; by fault of eliminating the “N” from the above name,

the name becomes Ziandu (frog); for the K6ngo, Zdindu is the
symbol of drunkard, but also of habitual drunkeness. In sup-
pressing certain letters, mainly “n” and “m” from their names,
6?
many intellectuals in present Africa bear names with a vulgar

meaning or simply meaningless names, as in the case of the
name Zindu.
1O2
18) Wamp4na nséngo, kunkambi kwé ngétu bwé

isadila yo ko.
If you give me a hoe don’t tell me where or how |
should use it. Don’t stifle my field of activities and
my normal development by pretended assistance.
19) Kanda diazangulwa lusunga lwa kimfumu-

dikanda luzimbale.
When the community leadership looses its direc-
tion, the community is oppressed. There is only the
leadership and its direction that should be blamed
in any social, economic or political crises. One spits
only at the leader.
20) Ka ngw’andi ko, kanda dian’kitula kinsevanseva

ye luntoyo.
It is the community that made him/her a habitual
smiler and a talkative individual, not his/her
mother. Community members are born simple,
nice, and good, but they become what the commu-
nity wants them to be/become. The human being is
a social product; he is what he eats, learns, hears,
sees, feels, and lives. The actual behavior of a
human being is a learned behavior. Very often one’s
nature is oppressed by the society.
21) Kanda kandu: ka kil6swa; ka kisAmbu.

The community is a taboo: never can one throw it
away, and never can one worship it. No one can be
otherwise than what one is. Societies, like human
beings, have their own identities/ personalities, be
they open or hidden.
103
22) K4nda diansansa, kanda isansa.

The community took care of me; I will take care of
that community. Community life is a process of re-
ceiving and transmitting/passing on. [tambula ye
tambikisa] Teach a child completely and thor-
oughly about what you are as a community and
your teaching will go on completely and thoroughly.
Life and living is a seedling process.
23) Kiaséla kanda ko; kanda dianséla.

I did not choose my community (society/race); it is
the community that chose me by giving birth to
me/by bringing me where I am. The community has
responsibilities to me as I have responsibilities vis-
a-vis to it. Discrimination is a disease.
24) KAnda diasala nsng’a n’kénto ka ditimbukanga ko.

As long as there is a female “shoot” within the com-
munity, it cannot be annihilated. The presence of a
female in the community is the symbol of continu-
ity of life in that community, and on the contrary,
her absence is the symbol of its end. The feminine
is life (God) in and around us.
25) KAanda diaméyo dimbu yémba.

The common and public house is the symbol of an
alive community. The yemba/boko is the point of
centralization and decentralization of forces as
well as of activities within the community. Its an-
imation is a sign of vitality within the community.
Well seated institutions are key to social, eco-
nomical, political, and philosophical stability of
104
nations; they are, not only nations’ hearts, but

also their brains.
26) Kanda nkasa ye nome/niosi.

The community is at the same time poison and
honey. The community is very sticky to its mem-
bers. It is hard, even hostile to live within, but it is
however the best place to “stick on” [nama], i.e., to
live and to belong to.
27) Kanda i (mbdndani a) bafwa ye baméyo.

The community is the union of the ancestors and of
the living people. The community is an accumula-
tion of the living unity of the physical and spiritual
elements.
28) Mu k4nda ka mwena nzaku (za n’toto) ko.

There are no boundaries of land within the com-
munity land. The freedom of land use by all com-
munity members is warranted within the commu-
nity. There is no privacy on land issues; its
ownership is public for no one came in this world
with a piece of land in his/her hand. Therefore it
cannot be sold, bought or alienated.
29) Wasinga kanda ukisingidi.

If you curse the community you curse yourself. It is
uneasy for one to blame or condemn one’s commu-
nity. Avoid the attack of the community against you.
30) Wakatuka mu p’kingu mia fu kia kanda kitukidi

mapeka ye wingani.
105
If you do leave the principles of the community sys-

tem, you become an errant and a deviant. The loss
of one’s own rights of belonging to a community
(society/nation) is maybe more harmful than an im-
prisonment for life.
31) Kanda diafika nza yifakidi.

If the concept of community is annihilated/ de-
stroyed, the world is destroyed. If principles, con-
cepts, norms and values that make world commu-
nities alive are violated, weakened or completely
destroyed, the human being will easily destroy his
world.
32) Yimbu mu kAnda sinsu kia mfwilu a kanda.

The poison within the community is a symptom of
community/social destruction. Deadly weapons in
man’s community not only are a symbol of the dis-
organization of the society which possess them, but
more importantly they are a symptom of its own de-
struction, and of the approaching end of man’s
world.
33) Diéla dia kanda m’bikudi.

The wisdom of the community prophesizes. The
community sees farther than an individual can.
Anyone who learns to see through the community’s
eyes (wisdom) is a very bright person.
34) Kala n’léngi a kanda mbo’ waz4ya mayenda mu

kAnda.
106
Be a community teacher/leader in order to know

what goes on within the community. The real wis-
dom of a society and its very basic needs are only
known by those who mingle within the reality of
people’s daily lives in that society.
35) Kanda kabelanga nzénza ko.

The community is not hostile to a stranger. The
community welcomes all human beings as long as
they do not dare to interfere with its basic social
practices/principles.
36) Kubungi kamu kia kanda mu kinzénza kidku ko.

Do not try to destroy the reputation of the commu-
nity/society while wearing, somewhere else, the
label of “being a stranger.” Your misconduct, else-
where, has direct or indirect impact on your com-
munity/society as well as on yourself.
37) Mvita makanda mawdbi uléndanga zo.

The quarrels (wars) between communities/societies
are solved by diplomatic encounters. The diplo-
macy [kimawibi] is the leading key to peace.
38) Ku kanda dia mbadio mpaka (ntantani) ze’ ko;

nga ziswémi mu dia didku zazéyi?
There are lots of conflicts within the “So’s” com-
munity; do you realize how many there are within
yours? Tend to your affairs and let others preoccupy
themselves with theirs. Try to learn thoroughly
what is going on in your own society before probing
other societies.
107
39) Lumbu-ki bisikanda, mbazi bakulu ba k4Anda,

variant Lumbu-ki lesi bia kanda, mbazi bakulu
mu kAnda.
Today we are community members; tomorrow we
will be the ancestors of the community. What we
do and think today prepares us for what will be the
community’s assessment tomorrow. If we are today,
simple individuals within the community, we may
tomorrow be deified (spiritualized), i.e. be consid-
ered as the source of driving forces and radiations
within the living community, and this in accor-
dance with our attitude vis-a-vis to that community
during our physical lifetime [ku nseke]. Any seed
can give life to a big tree.
40) Mu kanda kikanda, bukanda, kinkwézi, kimwé-

nambuta, kisikanda, kikQndi, kinzdyani. Ka
mwena kimpala ko.
Within the community there are all alliances:com-
munity righteousness, marriage alliances, affilia-
tion, friendship, relationship; there is no antago-
nism. It is pleasant to live within a community, for
in the community, in the African concept, indeed
your pain and pleasure are shared, your joys dou-
bled, even tripled. The community, your commu-
nity as well as my community, is your place of joy,
love and life.
41) Mwisi wa mbéngi a kAnda wubote ke lusekeseke

lwa nim’a lénde ko.
Better the smoke from the community’s public
house rather than warmth from beyond our bound-
108
aries. Social conflicts within the community are less

harmful than an exile.
42) Kanda diakéndwa n’toto, bilesi bilaukidi/bim-

wangane.
If the community lacks the land, the door for sur-
vival, its members will disperse. The community
land, its availability to all members, is the symbol of
security and of togetherness within the community.
A community leader as well as a national one must
know that community/national land is the first
property of the society that should be protected,
even at the price of blood. A leader that sells or
aliénates the land of the community/society is a
murderer, because he prevents the community/soci-
ety from having access to its first source of all pos-
sibilities for survival.
43) Danga mu kAnda ka (biena) kinkuma ko.

Events within the community are not a rarity.
Human community always has problems to con-
front. Life within the community is a perpetual de-
bate. To be a community member is to be ready to
confront problems.
44) N’samu mia kanda miale’ bulungi, variant N’samu

mia kAanda ka mivwidi bulungi ko: mia ndo ka ndo.
Community issues (affairs) do not have anniversaries;
they happen anytime. Anything at anytime may hap-
pen within the community. With regard to anniver-
saries, they belong to seasons, plants, and to living be-
ings. Any community member as well as any
1O9
community leader must be aware about the “kéndwa-

kwa-bulungi” principle in community affairs.
45) Wazangisa Kimvwéma zimbisi n’swa ye niénzi mu

kanda.
In worshipping one’s own wealth one looses rights
and social enjoyment of his/her community. Mintu,
the human being, is fundamentally a social being
and, as such, his assumed private rights are very
meaningless before the social and collective rights.
A shared wealth procures more internal happiness.
46) Makani ma kanda, mw4na mu ntdnda; ka mate-

wanga nkdmbu ko.
Community plans/projects, are an infant in their
mother’s womb, they are without name. Social
driving forces, their sources, are fundamentally un-
known. If the name of your plan/project explicitly
tells you what you want to do, don’t tell it to your
enemy, and the best way to keep it secret is to knot
it = code it [kAnga yo kolo].
47) Kolo diakanga nganga, kutula nganga, variant Kolo

diakanga mwisikanda, mwisikanda kutula dio or
Kolo diakanga mwisikanda, kutula mwisikanda.
A code (knot) from a specialist should be decoded
by a specialist (of the system=kimpa, fu). What is
fundamentally systematic can only be easily under-
stood within the system. Our present knowledge in
ways of coding and decoding cultural codes of alien
cultures is the cornerstone in human antagonism in
the world today.
110
48) Mfumu-dikanda n’tu a mbwa waténdila makome.

The community leader is a dog’s head; everybody
knocks upon it. One only spits at the leader. A true
leader is an object of critics.
49) Kwena simbi kia kanda, kwena didi dia kanda.

Where there is the community djinn (leadership),
there is the center of the community. Societies like
people have their hearts.
50) Kisikanda, vo ka butukila ko (mu) bukwAngi.

If not by birth, one becomes a member of the com-
munity by refuge (adoption/exile). All means are
available to integrate a society.
51) Kanda, kandu kia kanda ye nsi.

The community is a taboo for the community and
for the nation. National pride is made by men of
deeds, members of national communities. There
are not two different laws in one nation: one for the
poor and the other for the rich or one for the village
and another for the city.
52) Bandu dia kanda nsAng’a mintu ye n’toto.

The initial community capital (bandu, from banda,
to start) is its human resources and the land. Life
would be impossible within the community without
land and without valid people in it. The community
must pay a particular attention to its youth as well
as to its land, the fundamental capitals of a society.
53) Mbéngi nkat’a kanda ye nsi.

The public house of the community is the seating of

the community as well as of the nation. Community
unity finds its foundation from “boko”, the public
house/institution. Societies as well as people, have
their rolls of life; these rolls, nzingu/nkata, are
tolled and unrolled within social and public institu-
tions.
54) Mbdngi a kanda va kati kwa nsi ye yulu.

The center (cavity) of the community is located be-
tween the above and below world. The reality of
the cultural heritage of a community, i.e., its knowl-
edge, is the experience of that deepest knowledge
found between the spiritualized ancestors and the
physically living thinkers within the community.
Africa was invaded in all its regions by travellers, mis-

sionaries, newsmen, pilots, peacemakers, apartheid-
minded-individuals, and today, by “bought-men”, the mer-
cenaries, with the main goal, in accordance to what one
tells us, to understand and to civilize its people. The mis-
sion of civilization having “accomplished” her “noble” mis-
sion, which was a total failure, African people were still
known as people without logic, people without systems,
people without concepts, the primitive people, unlawful so-
cieties, etc. And one may ask what is wrong with social sci-
ence scholars and their academic world? How long should
we continue to lie? Proverbs related to the community, and
our comments on them prove the contrary of what has al-
ways been said and taught about African people. They tell
us how lawful, philosophical, systematic and practical
li2
Historical Background of the K6ngo Cultural Zone
African people were in their own world. Should not one be

astonished by African wisdom, should one undertake a
more or less complete study of that African wisdom hidden
in proverbs, the old way of theorizing among people of oral
literature? One must understand that a proverb, for
African people and those with a basically oral literature, is
not seen and understood in the way the western world sees
and understands it. For us, because of the lack of material
to write on in the past, proverbs are principles, theories,
warehouses of knowledge, booklets, taped information,
and, above all, they have “force de loi”, force of law, in ju-
diciary circumstances. A court without proverbs (translated
here as judiciary referential legal documents) belongs to the
dead [Mbasi-a-n’kanu yak6ndwa bingana ya bafwal], says an
unwritten Kéngo constitutional legal passage/proverb.
Hearing Is Seeing,
and Seing Is Reacting/Feeling
Wa i mona, ye mona i sunsumuka

Life is fundamentally a process of perpetual and mutual
communication; and to communicate is to emit and to re-
ceive waves and radiations [minika ye minienie]. This
process of, receiving and releasing or passing on [tambula
ye tambikisa] is the key to human being’s game of sur-
vival. A person is perpertually bathed by radiations’
weight, [zitu kia minienie]. The weight [zitu/demo] of ra-
diations may have a negative as well as a positive impact
on any tiny being, for example a person who represents
li}
the most vibrating “kolo” (knot) of relationships. The fol-

lowing expressions are very common among the Bantu, in
general, and among the K6ngo, in particular, which prove
to us the antiquity of these concepts in the African conti-
nent; Our businesses are waved/shaken; our health is
waved/shaken; what we possess is waved/shaken; the
communities are waved/shaken: Where are these (nega-
tive) waves coming from [Salu biéto bieti nikunwa;
mavimpi nikunwa; bituvwidi nikunwa; makanda
nikunwa: Kwé kutikanga minika miami]?
For the Bantu, a person lives and moves within an ocean
of waves/radiations. One is sensitive or immune to them.
To be sensitive to waves is to be able to react negatively or
positively to those waves/forces. But to be immune to sur-
rounding waves/forces, is to be less reactive to them or not
at all. These differences account for varying degrees in the
process of knowing/learning among individuals.
A sickness may be caused by waves/radiations sent or
emitted by a strange body within a given milieu. Although
the subject has already been discussed otherwise in Kindoki
and Makuku Matatu, we repeat this discussion here to help
those who may not have the chance to read my previous
works. The following picture will be very helpful.
When a vibrating knot [kolo] of relationships, i.e. a liv-
ing being M, is in communication with a visible source of
waves, VSW, in a radius [n’nienie] of audibility AB on the
line of the waves’ extent direction, AC, one knows that lit-
tle or no attention is paid to the importance of the
waves/vibrations. Images and voice/sound alone are the
important factors of this communication. On the other
114
hand, images and voices/sounds alone can disturb such a

communication. Remark that the intensity of the
voice/sound [zu/n’ningu] diminishes as one becomes obliv-
ious to all directions (upwards, downwards, backwards, or
sideways) from VSW. If the voice from VSW cannot be
heard outside the circle of audibility [lukéngolo lwang-
wila] formed by the radius AB, we then say that the point
B is the point where the “voiced-wave-message” becomes
a voiceless-waved-message”. Beyond this point voices be-
come less important, i.e., waves/vibrations and images in-
vade the B-C field of communication.
These waves and images can be disturbed by other waves
and images. This disturbance, like what happened to the
disturbed voices, may confuse the original message. This is
why it is very often difficult for the invisible destination ID,
e.g., the dreamer, located in any point in the field of com-
munication BC within waves’ strata [nyalu/ngwéngwe a
minika], 7-0, to understand the communication.
In a crowded place, it is easy for someone to be confused
about one’s own name when called by someone else stand-
ing at VSW. This may happen:because of the existence of
other voices/forces are the disturbing agents throughout
the field of communication A-B in its diverse points of
waves’ strata [ngwéngwe za minika] 13-8. One has to be
told by somebody else that “you are called.” This teller
[sunsumuni/te] was able to hear the calling voice/vibra-
tions from the VSW, because he was more aware and more
sensitive to that voice hearing is seeing, and seeing is re-
acting/feeling [Wa i mona, ye mona i sunsumuka]. There is
a fundamental relationship between hearing, seeing and
115
feeling/reacting [wa, mona ye sunsumuka]. Feeling is un-

derstanding. The Bantu do not “feel” pain, unless they
“see” them [mona mpasi] as we have said in our second
chapter. To have one’s senses in a perfect state of health is
to have the key to the basic process of accumulating knowl-
edge. One who does not have one’s senses in that state is
said to be, at a certain level, a mentally “disabled” person,
i.e., a being scored under the level of knowing [tdlwa/
kiatwa ku nsia tézo kia z4ya/nzailu].
What was said above reveals the pattern in the process
of natural voiceless communications throughout, waves/ra-
diations and dreams [minika/miniemie ye ndozi] as we dis-
cussed the issue in Makuku Matatu.
A dream [ndozi] is a voiceless communication. It is at the
same time a means and a message. This message can be au-
dible, pictorial and scenic. It has an origin [taku], a channel
[ngongo/n'landa], with or without an addressee receptor
[tambudi]. The origin/source of the message can be natural,
spiritual or supernatural. Before becoming a dream [ndozi],
this communication was a “wireless” communication from its
source (say the point VSW within the waves’ strata 13), to
the point at which it becomes a dream (i.e., any point within
the field of communication B-C). Such a communication is
voiceless from any point outside of the wave stratum circle B
through the field of communication B-C to the wave stratum
circle C. Certain waved communications are voiceless from
their origin, say VSW, to C, i.e., to the endless [sénsele]. The
communication passes through two main fields A-B and B-
C, before becoming a dream at the point where the dreamer
stands, say at the point C.
116
In the first field, A-B, this communication was princi-

pally a “voiced-pictorial-waved-message” [n’samu-wangwa-
wambona-wanikunwa]. In this same field, other positive or
negative “voiced-pictorial-waved-messages” are able to dis-
turb the first one. These disturbing messages, i.e., the un-
wanted ones, can be under diverse forms: noise, call, event,
scream, picture, a motion/movement, a laugh, etc.
On the contrary, in the second field, B-C, the communi-
cation becomes principally a “vibrated-pictorial-voiceless-
message” [n’samu-wanikunwa-wambona-wadikama]. While
running through this field, the waved message can also be
disturbed by other waved and unwanted messages. In other
words, this message becomes entangled with all kinds of
symbols and images, and is said to be “sticky” [n’samu weka
lunama]. These sticky and unwanted messages add to the
true and original message/communication different sym-
bolic forms which are very often bizarre and frightening:
sinking in water or in volcanic lava; burying oneself; lizards,
being surrounded by red-hot-lava, and all kinds of night-
mares. These symbolic images cover deeply and entirely the
true meaning of the dream. One then has to undergo the
process of removing or of discarding all those false symbols
and their unwanted meanings added to the dream’s message
in order to discover the true symbol of that dream and its
meaning to the dreamer or to his community. This elimina-
tion process is to dig up the garbage or rubbish [sata mfuti].
Because the dreamer cannot always understand the mes-
sage contained in his dream, he needs help just as in the case
of the person who could not hear the call of his name only
with the aid of an intermediary who was sensitive enough to
L17
understand the call. In the case of the process of explaining

dreams, this helper is called dream-interpreter [m’bangudi-a-
ndozi]. The dream can be a reflection of diurnal activities, a
repetition of past activities, or a projection of one’s own ac-
tivities and imagination in the future. But, most importantly,
it can be a warning about a future or imminent event: good
or bad news. A dream-interpreter [M’bangudi-a-ndozi], is a
person whose sensitivity to and awareness of waves, symbols
and their meanings are very high. There is a lot to learn
through the dream state [ndozi], about people and their
health, about societies and their organizations, about sci-
ence, the past, the present and the future of humanity and
the world. But only a few people can understand them. The
scholar as well as the common man, very often, are unable to
see what is true or false in a dream, the waved-sticky-mes-
sage [n’samu-wa-lunama-wanikunwa].
The Bantu/Kéngo concept of dream [ndozi], is the di-
rect application of their theory about radiation. This the-
ory is very popular in African daily expressions, but ig-
nored by African intellectuals as well as by African
wisdom lovers. In accordance with this theory [longi
diadi], it is the waves/radiations that shake/wave soci-
eties, nations and communities [i minika/minienie
minikundanga bimvuka, zinsi ye mak4nda]. In other words,
it is the waves/radiations [minika/minienie], which are
very often the cause of accidents, sicknesses, fatigue, ten-
sions, changes, etc., (see Kindoki). Radiations of a strange
body within a given milieu, as well as words, may have a
catastrophic impact upon that environment.
It is 1939. I was 5 years old. A man of the true name Ma-
118
Historical Background of the K6éngo Cultural Zone
tidi-Mukédia, in the village of KGmbi, came into the pic-

ture (était 4 la page). This man, after the loss of many of his
family members, underwent a psychological crisis. Without
the knowledge of the other inhabitants of the village, he
went to buy strong baneful “knots” (sachets) of an n’kisi
[mafutu ma n’kisi wambi] and he interred them, at night,
throughout the entire village and in all its exits [mafula].
Three weeks after this undercover operation the entire vil-
lage was shaken/waved by strange ailments [vata diadio di-
anikunwa kwa mpila vGnga bianzénza] People screamed
and murmured: where are these waves coming from that
shake/wave the village? [Bantu bakw4ya ye vunguta: Kwé
kweti tikanga minika mieti nikuna vata?]
Because of this social imbalance, locale elders called for
an urgent debate/meeting in order to “nail/hammer the
issue” and “knot it” in nkdéndi, the “problem-nailing-
recorder-object,” [stmbi bia vata biavwandisa bantu mu
koma binko ye kAanga/loka nkéndi/mfiina] i-e., send defen-
sive waves/radiations through the village via the air and the
earth in order to “attack” the source of those negative ra-
diations and the wrong-doer at their center (See figure 21).
A few days after the ritual ceremony of tying the “vi-
brating knot” of social self-defense, Matidi-Mukédia lost
his equilibrium and became seriously sick. The village
council sat again to discuss the issue and interview the
dying sickman. Matidi accepted his guilt and explained
what he did. It was a Sunday. Matidi-Mukédia asked the
crowd to follow him in order to unearth all the negative vi-
brating knots [mafutu/makolo ma minika miambi] he had
interred in the village, which were the source of the nega-
119
tive waves [minika miambi] that shook the whole village.

We all went after him to see, with our own eyes, the n’kisi
that waved/shook the community of the village. After the
operation had been unearthed the negative waves disap-
peared from the village [minika miambi miavila mu vata].
Superstition? Hallucination? Magic manipulation? Unsci-
entific-related issue? I cannot tell. One sole thing I know, it
happened and I was among the witnesses on the spot.
When a Mantu, in general, and a Mukéngo, in particu-
lar, says our bodies are being shaken/waved [nitu zéto zeti
nikunwa béni] or our community is being ghastly
shaken/waved again and again [k4nda diéto dieti nikunwa
ye nikunwa] or we are in a waving/vibrating period [mu
tandu kia ndikununu/ndikutusunu twenal], he is referring
to that theory of waves/radiations which can positively or
negatively bathe and shake/wave bodies, nations, govern-
ments and communities/socieities, be they developing or
advanced. Likewise when a, deep-going person, psychia-
trist, seer [m’fiédi/nginza], says people are murmuring
about you [bantu beti kwénda niungutanga mu ngeye] or
you are followed by bad luck [n’loko weti kulAndanga], he
is referring to that theory [léngi]. These waves may have
good or bad consequences upon people, nations and social
organizations [Minika miami milénda tikisa lémina diambi
evo diambote mu bantu, zinsi ye mu bimvuka]. Three cases
are meanwhile possible in this process of communication by
natural or supernatural waves/radiations:
1. The human being, receiver [tAambudi], i-e., dreamer,

can receive and understand thoroughly the waved
120
message [n’samu wanikunwa/tubwa] and take then

his precautions. The receptibility, like the audibility,
depends not only on the perfectibility (health) and
sensibility of the senses, but also on the distance and
obstacles met in the field of communication [yinza
dia ntambukusulu/dia minika].
2. He can only receive and understand a part of the

waved message, whereby a certain anxiety and doubt
comes to the dreamer/receiver in accordance with what
I dreamed, I doubt if people in my village community
are fine [Kizéyi ko keti ku vata mbote kw4u bena].
3. He may not receive the message at all. In this case he

is totally ignorant of it, whereupon baneful, disastrous
and unforeseen consequences may affect his daily life.
Because of this, the Miantu will, for a dream, consult the

m’fiédi, deep-heart-going-person, dream-interpreter
[m’bangudi-a-ndozi], soothsayer [m’moni-a-mambu], seer-
through-life-rolls [n’zingumuni-a-mambu]. He may also de-
cide to discuss the situation in a community council, with
a wise friend, or if such be the case, “kangisa mio, i.e.,
minika”, literally tie/knot them, i.e., code them into a vi-
brating knot that could produce defensive radiations/waves
in order to avoid undesirable or disastrous consequences
within the community.
It is using both mental and natural laser power [Léndo
kiampitila]. And man continues to dream old as well as
new dreams in the same way his great-great-great-grand-
parents dreamt.
lel
Figure 21.
A: Center/source of emission [didi/nto a ntubulu/ndikusunu]
B: Radius’ end of field of audibility [nsuk’a n’nienie wa yinza dia ngwilu]
BC: Endless field of the reception of voiceless waves [sénsele/ yinza diakéndwa
nsuka dia ntambudulu a minika miadingalala]
M: Receptor of voiced/audible message [tambudi kia n’samu wawakana]
AC: Line direction of waves’ extent [n’léng’a lusunga lwa mbwangununu a
minika
VSW: Visible source of waves. Human being’s voice in circle A [Tiiku kia-
monika kia Minika, TAM- Zu dia miintu mu kindiongololo A].
I-XIII: Roman figures indicate different distances in the fields of reception.
Figure I indicates the shortest distance from the VSW, and XIII indicates the
longest distance. [Sono bia Léma bieti s6nga nswasani a tatuka kwenamu
béndo bia ntambudulu. Dimbu I kieti sénga tini kilutidi nkufi ye kilutidi finama
ye TAM (VSW) ye dimbu XIII, tini kilutidi nda ye kilutidi tatuka ye TAM].
13-0: Arabic figures indicate frequencies of waves emitted, their amount. The
figure O indicates the field of communication as yet untouched by emitted
waves. The figure | indicates the first layer of waves emitted by the VSW, and
the number 13 the last layer of waves sent from VSW [Sono bia kialabia bieti
songa ndikit’a minika mitubulu, ntalu du. Dimbu O kieti sénga yinza dilém-
bolo lwakwa kwa minika mitubulu. Dimbu 1 kieti s6nga nyalu yantete ya
minika mitubulu kwa TAM ye, ntalufnomba 13 yeti sdnga nyalu yaz-
imunina/yansuka ya minika mitubulu kwa TAM].
[22
Is That Magic?
Ket’i Muyeke?
When one fundamentally understands an African lan-
guage and the symbolic cultural concepts generated by
that language, one must wonder where technological di-
rection the African traditional concept of knowing [zdya]
is heading. Can we today, with our present system of cod-
ing and decoding cultural concepts, be able to unearth
that yet unknown dimension?
Lémba-dia-K4nda, literally “The Soother-of-the-Com-
munity”, was the unique sister of Baniunguta-Kwau, lit-
erally “Let-Them-Murmur”, and the unique sister of the
community [kanda]. Unexpectedly Lémba-dia-Kanda
was kidnapped on her way to the field. She was badly
beaten and left for dead by her unknown kidnapper. The
community in its entirety was shocked by this unhuman
treatment.
Baniunguta-Kwau, Lémba-dia-Kanda’s brother, took the
initiative to see, the specialist-owner of the televisor-pot
[nganga-sénso] in order to get revenge on his sister. “The
initiative is positive,” agreed the whole community.
“We want to know who the kidnapper was of the com-
munity’s unique sister,” the only question asked of the
nganga-sénso. You will, right now, see the proof about the
kidnapper of the unique community sister,” [Si lwamona ki-
mansuna] responded the nganga. The ng4nga put his sénso
in the middle of the circle; he then put in some clear water
and medicines [maza malénga ye bikéla]. He asked the
123
elder of the community and the kidnapped sister to wash

their hands within the sénso, the televisor-pot’.
After this ritual, the nganga-sénso covered his sénso
with a piece of red cloth. He then talked to himself in a
very strange language and, pointing to the elder of the
community said uncover “the televisor-pot” [Yabula
sénso]. Surprisingly, everybody could see the unknown
kidnapper within the plate (pot) beating the unique com-
munity sister. “What do you want?” [Bwabu nki luzolele],
said the nganga “Do what you usually do” [Sa bu
usanga], “Break the needle; kill him” [tabula ntambu] re-
sponded the community members.
The nganga took the knife appropriated for the practice
and knocked it on the head of the kidnapper whose shadow
was radiating within the sénso. At once the clear water was
transformed (changed) into blood., the enemy of the com-
munity is unmistakably hit [N’tantu wa kanda utélo].
Is that magic [ket’i muyeke] or just unthinkable dis-
courses of the so called “primitive” and “illogical” people by
Sénsa: To appear (from far away), coming to visibility, to

approach, to reveal itself.
Sénsinsa: To make appear or visible, to bring to visibility, to
make closer, to develop (picture).
Sénsisi: The one that manipulates or uses the sénso/sen-
sosolo. Developer (photo).
Sénso: Appearance, visibility, screen, televisor-pot, movie,
television set.
Sensosolo: Instrument and product to make appear (photo),
binoculars. Synonym of sénso.
124
the specialists of the understanding of man? Or a precursor

of the yet unknown field whose ground is already laid in
Africa? This is one of the “knowing” aspects aborted by col-
onization everywhere in the world.
The African concept of knowing [z4ya], about waves
[minika], still is fundamentally unearthed; it does have a
different direction within a different dimension; maybe it is
unfelt because it is unknown by specialists of the current
well known concept of knowing/knowledge [z4ya/nzailu].
Figure 22.
If a Mukéngo, in particular, and a Mantu in general, sits

down for awhile on one side of his/her path, he will make
sure before leaving that he picked up [bénga béndo] his
electronic radiated shadow [kini kia minika/minienie kisidi
va béndo] left on the spot where he was sitting: To pick up
one’s own radiated shadow left on the seated spot [bénga
béndo/kini, variant bénga kini kia minienie mia béndo], for
fear of being manipulated by one’s own enemy in case this
125
enemy possesses delicate knowledge about [kini kia

béndo], the electronically radiated shadow (sensibility)
upon things we touch or sit down on.
Do not such concepts reflect a high level of thinking
about electronics and advanced concepts in technology?
Are not concepts and ideas, be they mythical, utopian or
magic, precede all inventions? Would our present world’s
main concept of knowing [z4ya] change when this concept
fully comes to its visibility or understanding [mbwéno yAyi
bu yina sénsa va mpénza]? I cannot tell because I don’t
know, but one thing is true people will be curious about it.
Then we will see if this concept will not stop, for the sake
of world peace, the appearance of the world’s unwanted
leaders’ faces from the TV screen [sénso] because of their
undemocratic, dictatorial and “mandateless” regimes.
Figure 23.
120
THE co.
BASIS OF ALL REALITIES
n 1964, at the age of 30, I was introduced to one of the

most important, secret, and sacred teaching of Kéngo;
a Bantu speaking ethnic group in the center of West
Africa, along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Here the
word Bantu should be understood as an anthropological
term. As such, one has to see and understand it as a com-
plex house with tens, if not hundreds or rooms. Each of
these rooms will be seen, understood, and taken as an eth-
nic group such as that of the Kéngo people.
These teachings of Kéngo were offered at the Lémba
Institute in Manianga, the Lower-Congo where I was
born. This institute was one of five main institutes that
existed in the ancient Kéngo kingdom prior to the Colo-
nial Era. The four others were Kimpasi, Kinktmba, Bwélo
and Kikdambi. The last, Kikimbi Institute, was specialized
to focus on womanhood and all its related issues. All
teachings in these institutes were Bantu people teachings,
i.e., related to the complexity of the “Bantu house” as
they were disseminated within “Kéngo room.”
Because of their secrecy, sacredness, as well as their mys-
tic nature, only initiated individuals were allowed to enter
127
these institutions. The exception is Kikdimbi that requires

one major condition for any female candidate to enter: The
condition to enter the womanhood institution is to “be of
age.” This means to have had one’s first menstruation
[yikama or kala ku mbéngo]. It is at this stage that a female
candidate of Bantu culture in the Kéngo area is introduced
to the secrecy and sacredness of the first “V”, in both its bi-
ological aspects to life and living in the “inner environ-
ment” of any life to be [Fu-Kiau, 1991]. The Kikumbi was
the only institution that disseminated not only the secrecy
and sacredness of the first “V” to its candidtaes, but its
mystic meaning as well!
To illustrate to these candidates that the teachings were
highly powerful, secret and sacred, all candidates were
painted with the tukula (red), the symbol of both danger
and death, maturity and leadership. The symbolic painting
of candidates in red [tukula] was fundamental to convey
the essence of the teaching to all. This prevented these
teachings from being violated by those who offer the first
environment, the inner environment, to any living being to
be born. Here we are talking about what I call the reverse
“Vee”, as it will be discussed.
Because of their closed door policy to the non-initiated
[biyinga], colonial powers decreed these institutions as
dangerous to the survival of colonization. Consequently,
these institutions were destroyed without taking into con-
sideration their social, cultural, educational, spiritual or
moral values. Many of their unyielding leading masters
[ngudia-nganga] were executed or jailed for life. The re-
maining masters took these institutions underground for
128
The “V”: Basis of All Realities
hundreds of years for fear of reprisal from both the colonial

and religious powers.
It is at the feet of some of these underground masters
that I learned not only about the “V” (the basis of all re-
alities), but the foundation of the Bantu people system of
thought as well, their cosmologies. No one can truly un-
derstand the “Vee” without any basic knowledge upon
Bantu world view, or their cosmologies. Our own work, as
would later write two American scholars, is the first on
the subject: “This study is the first in any language to re-
veal the system of popular Kéngo religion, its cosmology”
[McGaffey et. al. 1974].
Understanding the world view of a people is the cor-
nerstone for understanding their culture. If the Bantu cos-
mology was only revealed to the outside world by 1966, a
few years after the liberation of most Bantu people area,
then one can also say that the Bantu world is yet not truly
understood by the outside world—neither culturally, ar-
tistically, nor philosophically. Therefore, western litera-
ture of Africa prior to this date must contain many fan-
tasies which must be dismissed if one is willing to
contribute to the process of “Building African scholarship
in Africa and Diaspora.”! Superficial scholarship any-
where in the world is very dangerous in terms of human
relationships. It is always better to remain quiet than to
utter wrong statements about other cultures (come to
haunt you). Many of the world’s tensions today are the re-
sults of such wrong statements.
|. Fy-Kiau, 1997: Title of a lecture given at Jowa State University.
129
It is not easy for outsiders to access the cultural core of a

given people unless one is guided by a local native master.
This is the case of the “Vee” here. This Kéngo “V” was
never talked or written about because it is an integral part
of the Kéngo cosmology; a world view that was never re-
vealed before 1966 by local masters. Now we are able to
talk about and discuss it openly as it was understood and
disseminated in ancient institutions of the Bantu world.
The “Vee”, what is it? One may promptly ask.
Because this subject is exciting and vital to life, I have
lectured on this subject many times since I have been liv-
ing in the States; both privately and publicly, in colleges,
universities, museums, cultural centers, and in jails as well.
Everything, including individual and collective life depends
upon it. National security itself, of any country, is subject to
it. And yet, it remains a secret to the great majority because
they are not aware of it. The “V” is one of the most impor-
tant keys in understanding life on the planet earth, and in
the cosmic bodies (planets) as well (if life exists there too).
It is, in some way, life itself (as we “try” to know it). Every-
thing is a “V” because the beginning itself, or the big bang,
exploded in the form of the “V”. Because it is the bridging
“wire” between thinking-matter the human [mintu], and
the world of unthinking-matter (the world and source of
“ungrasped” ideas and images). The “Vee” is the basis of all
inspirational realities such as great ideas, images, illustra-
tions, inventions of all orders (including works of art), wars
and conceptions, both biological and ideological as well. It
is the process [dingo-dingo] to all changes, social and insti-
tutional; natural and unnatural, seen and unseen.
130
To talk about the “V” is to talk about realities, whether

they are biological, inspirational or ideological, material or
immaterial. They all pop into our minds in forms of the Vee
(beam span of the Vee) inside us at the Musoni zone of the
Kéngo cosmology. We seek for ideas and images through
“the open beam of the Vee” inside our mind and on the
contrary we focus details and specificities under reverse
beam of the “Vee”. This “V” is not a religion nor an aca-
demic exercise which may consist of transferring bones
from one graveyard to another. It is one of the most secret
keys of life and living.
Cosmically, the Vee teaches with all simplicity the for-
mation process [dingo-dingo] of the universe and its bod-
ies or planets [Fu-Kiau, 1994] while biologically, it explains
the formation as well as the developmental process of life
through all its stages; conception, birth, maturity, and
death. With the Vee one can ideologically understand so-
cial systems: their rise and their fall (Fu-Kiau, 1980).
The “Vee” has a standing ground, the untouchable “dark
matter” that consitutes the “printing dark room” of reali-
ties. From this dark room, pictures and ideas become reali-
ties in human minds which channel them into transforma-
tion processes that lead them to tangible realities. “Vee” is
the core to all circles inside which “Vee” stands. These
“Vees” are individual or collective, material or immaterial,
biological or ideological. Inside the community circle’s
“Vee” stands the master [nganga], teacher, priest, as a
power figure. This power figure, the leader/priest [ng4nga],
who stands powerfully at the center of the community is-
sues [mAmbu], became the Egyptian ankh or symbol of life.
131
Of course, among the Bantu people, an nganga stands “ver-

tically,” and powerfully inside the community “Vee”
[telama lwimbanganga mu k4nda], as the symbol of active
life in the community.
Figure 24.
From inside the “Vee” the human being [miintu] comes
to be [kala], and within the Vee he extinguishes [zima] as
living energy. Therefore, the Vee in reality, is a living pyra-
mid in constant motion, which follows the path of life and
passes the four main points of demarcation of the cosmo-
gram [dikenga], which in turn is symbolized by the flame of
life inside the community circle. The closer one is to the
center of this flame, whose “Vee” is the symbol, the health-
ier and more powerful one is. On the contrary, the more
distant one is from this center, the weaker and less power-
ful one becomes. (See figure 19).
1 $2
African people in Africa and Diaspora have lost their

closeness to the center of the community cultural “Vee”.
The Bantu-Kéngo philosophy, whose “Vee” is only one of
its most important aspects, teaches that the human being
[miaintu plural bantu] is both a living-energy-being (spiri-
tual being) and a physical being (matter). It can be said a
“V-H being”, i.e., he is a being [kadi/be] that stands verti-
cally, i.e., he thinks-reasons-ponders, before he walks and
acts to meet horizontally the challenges of the instinctive
world; this is the horizontal world, which is the main
ground to all learnings.
Walking horizontally is a process and a motion with one
intention, which is going to learn from one’s environment,
the circle, for “knowledge is not in us; it is outside of us.”
We are only shelving machines, living computers, with the
power to collect and shelve the information for future use,
at will.2 Horizontal motion [kiluk6éngolo], is especially a
cognitive process [dingo-dingo dianzayila]. Without this
cognitive motion, the human being [mdntu] becomes pow-
erless in his own environments, both inner and outer.
On the “V-H” ground, vertical-horizontal [Kin-
tombayulu-Kilukéngolo], the human being [miantu] has
two planes for his motion/movement. On the horizontal
plane he can move in four directions: forwards, backwards,
leftwards and rightwards. Motions towards these four di-
rections are for learning, i-e., collecting information (data)
2. Fu-Kiau: Lecture at the Carribean Cultural Center, N.Y. 1988;

Harvard Univsity in Blk. Studies Dept. 1992; ASA Conference
Pittsburg 1995.
133
to be shelved in his bank, the mind. But thanks to the ver-

tical plane, he can walk into three more directions, of
which one is critical to both his health and self-healing.
The vertical plane allows him to walk downwards, upwards
and for “perfect” health, true self-knowing and self-healing,
walk innerwards.
Figure 25.
The Bantu people, in their teaching, believe that the
human being suffers mostly because of his lack of knowing
how to walk towards this 7th direction, the innerwards di-
rection. Their own words put it so perfectly well: Kani ka
bwé, kana ku lumoso-ku lubakala-ku n’twAla-ku nima-mu
zulu evo mu nsi ukwénda, vutukisa va didi i yand. (No mat-
ter what, you may walk leftwards, rightwards, forwards,
backwards, upwards or downwards, you must come back to
the core/center).
| 34
The human being is nothing unless he discovers how to

walk towards the 7th direction, the center [didi], the inner
world which represents the essence of his being [bukadi
bwandi/bukadi bwa mbélo Andi]. As such, one has to dis-
cover, or rediscover, this walk towards the 7th direction,
not only for the sake of health and self-healing, but because
it empowers one for self-knowing as well. It allows us to
truly become “thinking-acting-beings” [kadi-biyindulanga-
mu-vanga], i.e., doers [vangi] because we are masters
[nganga] to ourselves.
But when the core of a body is oppressed, destroyed, pol-
luted, corrupted, or raped, be it biological, societal, institu-
tional or national, the body that envelops it is itself dead.
The path that leads towards it, the 7th direction, is also
wiped out. People become helpless. They lose their self-
healing power and their order-giver-stimulus.
In this situation the body cannot be healed unless the
“primitive” state of the core is restored. To do so is a process
of cleansing its core, i.e., “depolluting” it. In other words it
is learning the techniques of the curative “garbology”
[kinzddi kiandiakisina] which is a process of digging out the
junk that prevents access to the core of the inner power.
The walk on the path towards the 7th direction is the
key to all healings. To help one walk on this path is not only
to empower him/her, but it is to restore him/her as a whole.
It is to restore the self-healing power and turn on again the
order-giver-stimulus.
The “Vee”, teaches the Bantu-Kéngo philosophy, is
both expandable and shrinkable. Through initiation
[Ghanda/ Vanda, one learns how to’ widen
135
[Véngisa/zibula] one’s “V”, the door of insight [vitu di-

ambwéna]. If learning [longuka] is the process through
which we widen our doors of insight, our individual as
well as our collective “Vees”, we narrow or destory them
and ourselves at once through abuses such as drugs, men-
tal imprisonment, food, profanity and ignorance
According to these teachings, which the Kéngo con-
sider the first instructions and key principals [n’kingu mi-
angudi] to life, one has to focus on four main or essential
“Vees”. Each of the main “Vees” correspond to one spe-
cific point of demarcation on the Kéngo cosmogram
[dikenga dia Kéngo] and its symbolic colour. These points
of demarcation are: Musoni ( yellow demarcation point),
Kala (black demarcation point), Tukula (red demarcation
point) and Luvémba (white demarcation point). Further-
more, these points of demarcation, in Bantu-Kéngo
thought, are the four greatest “suns” of all formation
processes of change. The first (Musoni sun) is the sun of
the “go order” [lutumu lwa mvangumunu] to all begin-
nings; the second (Kala sun) is the sun of all births; the
third (Tukula sun) is the sun of maturity, leadership and
creativity; the fourth (Luvemba sun) is the sun of the last
and greatest change of all, death (Fu-Kiau, 1980).
Now that we have a clear idea about the Bantu-Kéngo
cosmogram, its points of demarcation and its “suns” as
well, let me present you a brief description of each one of
the four main “Vees”.
136
V.
»
=
Figure 26.
1. The first, V1, is called Vangama, especially at the ini-
titaion spot/institution [Kanga or Kéngo]. It is the forma-
tion process stage of life or Musoni stage. (See figure 26a).
x Figure 26a.
137
At this starting stage of the formation process [mvangu-

munu] of biological life, all genetic codes [tambukusu] are
imprinted [sonwa] into the future “living sun” to be, the
child. The function of Vangama is accomplished under the
conception action [yakwal].
In this sense, ideologically, we all get pregnant. And all
pregnancies begin inside the “V1”, the most fertile garden
of all. During this vangama process, the being[be/kadi] in
the formation process, turns into a breathing-being [via-
muni] in its first environment, the inner environment. The
second key word in this stage vamuni the breathing-being
finds its root from the verb viimuna, to breathe. It is the
functioning process of all biological “motors”, the heart.
Formation of the breathing process “vangama mu vdmuna
is the key to the V1 stage. With this breathing power [léndo
mu vdmuna] the inner development itself of the being to
be [kadi/be] begins to accelerate in order to expand itself
and its environment as well.
2. The second, “V2”, is known as Vaika. It is the “V”
that represents the existence stage of life or kala stage; to
be, to exist, to rise. This Vee is the door into the physical
world. Under this “V”, “things” are born, rise up to the
upper world [ku nseke] as “living” suns in the community,
biologically or ideologically, have their birth at this stage
under the Kala Sun. The function of Vaika from the inner
to the outer environment is accomplished under the birth
action [butuka]. (See figure 26b).
During the “vaika-butuka” process, the body of the “living
sun” rising in the upper world is empowered with a new
sound-making energy. The new being [kadi kiampa] becomes
1 3h
Figure 26b.
a speaking being [vovi]. This second key word to the V2,
speaking being [vovil], finds its root from the verb “vova”, to
speak. Vova, to speak, is to code and decode, for the outside
world, the universe, what is genetically coded/printed
[sonwa] inside one’s inner darkroom. It is not only to feed the
ears of the world, but to fill with our waves (expressed ener-
gies) the cosmic voids. It is to hear and to be heard.
The butuka-vova is the process through which orders are
given, received or rejected. Vova, speaking, gives us the mas-
tery of being and/or of becoming. This second “Vee” is also
known as the healing and cursing Vee; reviving and killing
Vee [Vova sakumuni ye singi/fimpudi ye fambudi]. It is the
Vee that teaches about the power of words in and around us
in life: Mambu makela, words are bullets, says a K6ngo saying.
3. The third “Vee”, V3, is called Vanga, derived from the
archaic word “gh4nga” to perform, to do. This Vee, the
most crucial in life, represents the stage of creativity and
great deeds or tukula stage of the root verb kula, to mature,
to master. (See figure 26c).
139
Figure 26c.
It is the symbol of the stage that is the most aspired to in

the physical world. Inventions, great works of art, etc., are
accomplished while one is passing through this zone of life.
At this point one becomes an “ngdnga”, a master, a doer, a
specialist in the community of doers. “Muna Kéngo: Vo
kughanga ko, kudia ko”—In Kéngo society, if you don’t do,
you don’t eat.? The VAnga function is accomplished by the
kula, grow action, ie., learning to “stand vertically”
[telama lwimbanganga] inside one’s “V”.
This Vee, the third, is a reversed pyramid. It occupies the
position of verticality [kintombayulu], the direction of
gods, power and leadership. People, institutions, societies
and nations as well, enter and exist in this zone successfully,
only if they stand on their own feet. One enters and stands
up inside this Vee to become a doer/master [ng4nga], to
oneself first before becoming an nganga to the community.
3- One cannot share or enjoy the community wealth unless
he/she participates to accumulate it.
140
This Vee and the zone it occupies is the scale to all: our
words, deeds, thoughts, movements, projects, meals, rela-
tionships, etc., and their impact on our health as individu-
als, institutions, societies and nations as well are weighed
on the scale of the Vee.
To stand “well” inside this scaling Vee is to be able not only
to master our lives, but to better know ourselves and our re-
lationship positions with the rest of the universe as a whole.
4. The last or fourth Vee, V4, is Vinda. This “V” repre-
sents the stage of the greatest change of all changes, death.
This stage is known as Luvémba stage. Under this stage one
goes naturally or unnaturally into the process of dying or
Vinda, i.e., to rest, to extinguish, leave the physical world,
to re-enter the world of living energy, which is the spiritual
world, the ancestors’ world. It is going in vacations
[Kwénda ku mvindulu]. In the process, one becomes ei-
ther an n’kuyu, which means an ugly, imature, stunted
[kuya] ancestor, or, the spiritually deified ancestor
[mukulu/n’kulu]. The Vanda function is completed under
the fwa, die, action (See figure 26d).
_ The “Vee” is not only a human experience, it is found
everywhere in nature as well as in the universe. It is the
most primitive form that emerged from the depth of the
first matter, “the dark matter” [ndobe/piu], which is the
“printing room” of all realities, not only visible and invisi-
ble, but material and immaterial as well. A “printing room”
for realities that were and realities to come. It is the print-
ing room inside where all great ideas, images and forms
emerge to be impregnated in our minds. Thereafter, we cre-
ate them as realities.
14]
Figure 26d.
The “Vee” is a living energy [“V” i léndo kiavdmuna]

and, as such, it is the basis [fuma/stnsi] of the reproductive
web of life [dingo-dingo diantingila lukosi lwa méyo].
Under the “Vee” we greet our friends and loved ones. It is
under these “meeting Vees” that love, lust and infatuation
become a part of the human experience. It is also under
these “meeting Vees” that friendships, partnerships and all
kinds of relationshps are created among people, communi-
|K 4
ties, institutions and nations as well.
. Rh
142
When two “Vees” of opposite but attractive energies

meet, they form a new body, a pattern in the form of a dia-
mond, within which emerges a strong core of vitality
[kiméyo], the seed of breath [vGmunu]. From this core-en-
ergy [didi dia ngolo], new lives, new products, new works of
art and new organizations are born. In other words, these
diamond-like cores can reproduce other “Vees” which at
their turn meet other “Vees”. It is the natural law of pro-
creation, speech/language, creativity, motion, etc. A circle
is an ensemble of many “Vees” in motion [See figure 27a].
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Figure 27a.
This diamond-like pattern, very common in Bantu in-

dustry of art and weaving, is a focus on life [méyo], its re-
productive web, and its value among the Bantu people in
particular, and among all African people in general. Velvets
143
woven on the ground of this pattern became didactical

tools used to teach the formation process of societies; these
patterns are taught to the communities, the families and
extended families. Western scholars of the African industry
of art and weaving (visual art) were unable to explain these
African iconographs. Their lack of knowledge about the
Bantu world view, their cosmologies, and their vital con-
cept of the “Vee” discussed here did not prepare them.
Figure 28.
Under the “Vee” we acknowledge our victories. Under

the “Vee” we scream up for pain or joy. (See figure 28a).
Under the “V” we see what we see inside the field of our
sight. Under the Vee’s light we dig up into our past memo-
ries. Under the beam of the Vee emerging from the the dark
matter [piu] that makes the creative vision possible, we re-
discover lost details in our memories.
144
Key
Under “Vee” we scream out for pain or joy.
Figure 28a.
Figure 29.
145
The “V” is not rare in nature. Many grasses grow up

keeping their “V” form. Trees maintain this V form in their
branch ramifications as they do keep their reverse “V” in
foliage formation process. This most secret form of “V”, the
reverse Vee or pyramid is kept by most world mountains.
(See figure 29a). These mountains are true natural “dark
rooms” inside which are hidden forces, powers, medicines
and mysteries of all times. They hide the first and most
powerful witnesses of the planetary formation process.
These witnesses are made silent by the “divine” presense,
the agent of all formation processes.
Trees keep the“Vee” form (branches and foliage).

Figure 29a.
140
Figure 30.
Thanks also to the Vee form of their bodies, birds, fish

and animals can move fast in their given environment.
Flowers themselves, the beauties of nature, are living
“Vees”. (See figure 31a). Last, but not least, rivers them-
selves, from their sources, are also “Vees” flowing and ser-
penting in our forests and valleys.
Figure 31.
147
Flowers, the beauties of nature, themselves are living “Vees”.
Figure 31a.
Have we not asked why our own best machines run or fly
faster? Because they are, of course, made in forms of the
“V". Also, because we cannot live ourselves outside of the
“Vee”, this fundamental truth is reflected on our own made
machines, boats, canoes, trains, airplanes, etc.
Figure 32.
148
The “Vee” is life and all its realities. It is the center of all
existence. It is the chaos of all chaos. It is the center of bal-
ance [kinenga] for the human being [mintu], his health
and that of his community as well. It is the key to all aspects
of simple life. It is the binding force to all: earth, plants, an-
imals, birds, insects, reptiles and human beings as one by
natural law. It is the Vee that differentiates human beings
[mdntu] from the beast. The [mintu] is fundamentally a
“vertical being”. He thinks and he is spiritual. Some people
deny being spiritual, but I am afraid if they are not more
spiritual than those who say they are. The beast, on the
contrary, is a “horizontal being,” a prostrated being that
acts instinctively. Mantu, by his behavior, can fall to the
level of animals; but the animal cannot rise to the level of
the vertically thinking being, the mintu.
Figure 33.
149
Understanding the personal, collective, and cosmic

“Vees” is a process of opening doors to new horizons
which can allow one to see and accept things both seen
and unseen, the way they are and not as one would like
them to be. This is a spiritual channel through which a
human can understand all his past, present and future
masters [stmbi], political or spiritual leaders, as humans
first, then spiritual leaders. It is understanding that the
KALA and ZIMA, the ON and OFF the yin and yang,
are not separate conceptual entities/realities; they both
are a token of two sides in one process of motion and
change. [Dingo-dingo dia minika ye nsobolo].
150
ANNEX
I. NDOZI—DREAMS
Bakwéndanga Those who are departing

Ndozi Dreams
Béto Ourselves
Ndozi Dreams
Bakwizanga Those who are entering
Ndozi Dreams
Ndozi Dreams
Ndozi Dreams
Ndozi ye ndozi Dreams and dreams
Bakulu The ancestors

Ndozi Dreams
Banganga Initiated/specialists
Ndozi Dreams
Biyinga Non-initiated/laymen
Ndozi Dreams
Ndozi Dreams
Ndozi Dreams
Zuzi Before yesterday

Ndozi Dreams
ZOno Yesterday
Ndozi Dreams
Lumbu-ki Today
Ndozi Dreams
Mbazi ‘Tomorrow
Ndozi Dreams
Ndozi Dreams
Ndozi Dreams
Ndozi kaka Always dreams

Kwakénsono Everywhere
Bénso nkaimbu Like name
Yeti landa miintu Accompanying the owner
Bénso budimbu Like the glue
Lumbu biabio All days
Mu luzingu In life
Ndozi Dreams
Ndozi Dreams
Bana Kids
Ndozi Dreams
Bambuta Elders
Ndozi Dreams
Mazoba Idiots
Ndozi Dreams
Bandwénga mpe Scholars, too
Ndozi Dreams
Ndozi Dreams
Ndozi Dreams
152
Annex
Nga zéyi Do you understand?

Makutélanga ndozi What dreams tell you
Mu diadmbu dia kanda diaku Concerning your commu-
nity
Mu diambu dia nsi aku Concerning your country
Ndozi Dreams
Ndozi Dreams
Mono vo And I’m telling you

Létwa Dream
Ye zaya maulétwanga And understand what you
dream
Wavangikisa mo For their realization
Mu kAnda diaku Within your community
Mu nsi aku In your country
Létwa Dream
Létwa Dream
Létwa ye létwa Dream and dream
153
Il. KU NSEKE
Luzingu ku nseke i:
Longwa ye longila
Tambula ye tambikisa
Zolwa ye zola
Tfimbwa ye timba
Katula ye katulwa
Dila ye dilwa
Mu soba...
IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD
Life in the physical world is:

To be taught and to teach
‘To receive and to give
To love and be loved
To be crowned and to crown
To dethrone and to be dethroned
To bury and to be buried
For change...
154
Annex
Smallest among thousands of works about Africa,

but I send you,
go, African Cosmology of the Kongo-Bantu,
talk about yourself to others
and be, a spark in the bush!
[kele-kele ku futa].
The author
155
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOURCES CITED
Balikci, A., 1970: The Netsilik Eskimo. Garden City, New

York
Batsikama-ba-Mampuya, 1971: Voici les Jagas. ONRD.
Kin/Zaire
De Cleene, 1946: “La Notion de propriete chez les popula-
tions matrilineales du Congo Belge”, in Africa., Buxelles
K. Kia Bunseki, Fu-Kiau,
1994: NrAngu-Tandu-Kolo: the Bantu Concept of Time
in Time in the Black Experience, Adjaye, J.K. (ed).
Greenwood Press.
1970: Kindoki ou solution attendue; Luyalungunu lwa
Kumba, Luozi/Bas-Zaire
1969a: N’kéngo ye nza yakun’zungidila/Le Mukongo et le
mode qui l’entourait. ONRD, Kin/Congo.
1969b: “Kwa nani zolele vova” (To whom are you speak-
ing?), in Moyo, No. 9; Kin/Congo.
Unpublished works:
1978: Makuku Matatu: les fondements culturels Kéngo. (pp
450).
1975: Ku Neénga: Verite sur les grandes initiations en
Afrigque Centrale. (pp 300).
1968: Les proverbes Kéngo.
150
Bibliography
Kajsa, E. 1972: Power and prestige: the rise and fall of the
Kéngo Kingdom. Uppsala, Sweden.
Laman, K.B. 1918: Laman Collection of Kéngo traditions. (pp
20,000) in 10 microfilm rolls, Stockholm, Sweden.
Lemarchande, 1964: Political awakening in the Belgian
Congo. Berkeley, Los Angeles.
MacGaffey, W., et al. 1974: An Anthology of Kongo Religion,
Univ. of Kansas.
Muller, E.W., 1956: Les droits de propriete chez les Mongo-
Bokote. Bruxelles, Belgium.
Munzele, Y., 1965: Bakulu béto ye diéla didu. Luyalungunu
lwa Kamba. Luozi/Bas-Zaire.
Obenga, Th., 1976: La cuvette congolaise: les hommes et les
structures. Ed. Presence Africaine, Paris.
Read, H., 1864: The Negro problem solved. Mnemosyne Pub-
lishing Co. Inc., Miami, Florida.
Thompson, R.F, et al. 1981: The Four Moments of the Sun:.
Kéngo Art in Two Worlds. National Gallery of Art, Wash-
ington.
Yabila, 1974: “Droit, revolution et vigilence revolutionaire”
in JIWE No. 3, UNAZA, Lubumbashi/Zaire.
Young, C., 1965: Introduction a la politique congolaise. CRISP
Bruxelles, Belgium.
William, J.C., 1972: Patrimonialism and political change in the
Congo.
Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, California.
[57
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
D* FU-KIAU BUNSEKI is one of the most distinguished

and insightful scholars of African culture. Born in Ma-
nianga, Congo, he was educated in both Western and
African systems of thought.
He is initiated into three major traditional "secret soci-
eties", Lemba, Khimba and Kimpasi. These "secret soci-
eties" are in reality indigenous educational institutions.
Lemba, is of particular relevance because it is the founda-
tion for numerous african based religions and practices in
the Americas, including Palo Mayombe in Cuba, Vodou
Petro in Haiti, and Candomble Angola in Brazil; brought
about through the transport of Central Africa's indigenous
people to the new world during the slave trade.
While teaching in the city of Kinshasa, Dr. Fu-Kiau de-
cided to return to his home, Manianga located in the coun-
tryside. There, he founded Luyalungunu Lwa Kumba-Nsi
Institute, a pioneering education center dedicated to ex-
ploring and documenting traditional Kongo culture. His re-
search and development work at the Institute laid bare the
african philosophy of ancient Bantu educational institu-
tions, which has had a significant. effect on major western
scholars including Drs. Robert E Thompson, John M.
Janzen and Wyatt MacGaffey. Essentially, the cultural phi-
losophy espoused by President Mobutu of Zaire on which
he firmly established his national programme of Authen-
ticite was based on the works of Fu-Kiau.
158
Fu-Kiau came to the United States to continue his edu-
cation, and to educate Americans, particularly African
Americans, about the complexity and depth of African phi-
losophy. Since his arrival. he has done precisely that by
means of various lectures and presentations. He has pub-
lished numerous books and articles including Kongo Cos-
mology, Kumina: A Kongo-based Tradition in the New World,
Kindezi: The Kongo Art of Babysitting, and Self-Healing Power
and Therapy, Old Teachings from Africa. He Currently re-
sides in Boston where he works as Director of Library Ser-
vices at the Suffolk County House of Correction, and as
Visiting Lecturer at the Tufts University Department of
Anthropology and Sociology. He has also instituted two
unique courses at the Suffolk County House of Correction:
The Jail That Changed My Life and The African World
and Culture. These courses are currently being turned into
manuscripts for publication.
Dr. Fu-Kiau's academic background includes degrees in
the areas of Cultural Anthropology (B.A.), School Admin-
istration (M.Ed.), Library Science (M.S.), and Education
and Community Development (Ph.D.). An insightful
scholar with a profound knowledge of Central African phi-
losophy and Traditions, he is also a serious and committed
educator with a wealth of experience, both in Africa and
the United States. Dr. Fu-Kiau is a person of character, ded-
icated to the betterment of human-kind through tradi-
tional African ideas and means.
159
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is fundamentally a proc PO)
munications and to comm ‘elve
waves and radiations (min mali

receiving and releasing or passing them on (tambula ye tambik
isa) is the key to human beings game of survival.A person is per
petually bathed by radiations’ weight, (zitu kia minienie), The
| weight (zitu/demo) of radiations may have a negative as well as
|| positive impact on any tiny being, for example a person who rep
resents the most vibrating: “kolo” (knot) of relationships.
| The following expressions are very common among the
Bantu, in general, and among the Kongo in particular, which
prove to us the antiquity of these concepts in the African conti
nent; Our businesses are waved/shaken; our health is
waved/shaken; what we possess is waved/shaken; the commun!
ties are waved/shaken: Where are these (negative) waves coming
‘from (Salu bieto bieti nikunwa; mavimpi nikunwa; biltwowidi
nikunwa; makanda nikunwa: Kwe kutukanga minika miami)?
For the Bantu, a person lives and moves within an ocean of
waves/radiations. One is sensitive or immune to them, To be sen
_ sitive to waves is to be able to react negatively or positively to
‘those waves/forces. But to be immune to surrounding
'| waves/forces, is to be less reactive to them or not at all, These
| CORUM MeO AZUL CCC co MMC ecco me mS ohS
|| ing/learning among individuals.
ION
STN KOO
/RIARGDO 5/2769
ATHELIA HENRIETTA PRESS

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AFRICAN

TYING THE SPIRITUAL KNOT

KIMBWANDENDE KIA BUNSEKI FU-KIAU, PH.D.

ATHELIA HENRIETTA PRESS

Editorial Production: Roger Francis/Rudolph Francis

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in

Library of Congress Control Number: 2001130358

Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau

African Cosmology of the Bantu—Kéngo, Tying the Spiritual Knot

1. African (Bantu Kéngo) Religion, Spirituality

Here is what the Kongolese Cosmology taught

Introduction to the First Edition .................. 9

A Few Words to the Second Edition .............. 13

1. Kéngo Cosmology in Graphics ................. 17

2. African Concept of Law and Crime ............. 45

3. Historical Background of the Kéngo Cultural Zone . . 55

4. The “V”: Basis of All Realities................ 127

AMNEX 00. eeeeee eens 151

fore, it is necessary to study the language that expresses

to cultures as well. A systematic understanding therefore

K. Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau

wenty-one years ago this study was printed to serve

K. Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau

TYING THE SPIRITUAL KNOT

A straight line/skyline [n’lénga - lukéngolo] or a line

are, in the empty mbdngi, active forces that can blow up

storm of projectiles, kimbwandénde, producing a huge mass

worlds. Kaltinga became also the idea of immensity,

The number of infinite mass in fusion particles that re-

tion. Man himself is an “object” [ma] in motion for he is

Mapping the Universe

K6ngo cosmogram known as dikenga dia K6ngo (Fu-Kiau,

immediately after the green planets’ layer. The key word in

intensity of movements, will always continue to collide and

After this short and brief description of the Bantu-

He has to rise as the sun does in order to Kala, to be, to be-

¢ Kala/ba miintu—be a human being, a helpful being

e Kala/ba lembanzau kia kanda—be the strongest of the

Kula, to grow in the way of making one’s own history

the “V of life.” To grow, to mature [kula] is to be ready to

“V” of his community life, as a priest and a leader. The fate

Miantu ukulanga uvanganga kikulu ye kota mu n'lénga wa

state of blindness. They were asleep, stunted ancestors

Landila tambi kia tukula, i bébo bimvuka ye zinsi, miaintu

the process by which former leaders [simbi bia nsi] pass

This world, the physical world, has three basic forces

|. All growing social forces among zingiinza, heroic youth,

Notice here, that in traditional Kéngo society, to become

a specialist, was something required of all its members, and

Sun movement: the rising and setting of the sun.

According to the author Batshikama, also a Mukéngo,

neous idea of the Batshikama notion stated in his “Voici les

After crossing the kaldiinga line, the doorway towards ku

Kinkénge and from there to Boma” during a public confes-

A human being’s life is a continuous process of transfor-

because it is the key to open or to close, to enter or exit the

Man’s life attention, ku nseke, is centered on the n'kisi

case kundu or kindoki is the lived and accumulated knowl-

its cosmological practices. The marriage pattern itself, one